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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24051631">Retreving the ARK</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Technogirl123/pseuds/Technogirl123'>Technogirl123</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SOMA (Video Game), jacksepticeye, youtuber</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, End of the World, Far Future, Gen, Horror</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 17:28:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>29,791</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24051631</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Technogirl123/pseuds/Technogirl123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Reily Dhar is a struggling college student just trying to pass her classes and keep food in the fridge. She hears other students talking about a medical trial that was paying those who participated. Reily jumped on board and headed right to the office that week and set up a time with the leading doctor.<br/>The test is simple and painless.<br/>Everything should be fine.<br/>Everything is going well.<br/>Everything. Is. Fine.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Columbus Ohio, 2018</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is a fanfiction about the video game SOMA along with the Youtuber Jacksepticeye. I do not own the locations or names from the video game SOMA or from Jacksepticeye. I am just a fan who is showing their appreciation in the best way they can. I tried not to stick strictly with the gameplay but attempted to create a story. I'm sorry if I left out parts or didn't explain certain parts correctly. Again, this is purely a fanfiction of a game I love.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily furiously writes in her notebook and attempts to keep up with her professor. He is going over the difficult questions that will be on the mid-term exam tomorrow. </p><p>"Just one more hour then I'll be free." She whispers to herself. The class room is filled with the sounds of pencils scribbling attempting to keep up with the professor. Mr. William pauses for just a moment to let us catch up before he starts clearing the board. Reily can feel the anxiety hanging in the air as her classmates try to catch up before it disappears. </p><p>"Now then, does anyone have any questions?" At least twenty hands shoot up, some are shaking out of anticipation, others are more relaxed. Reily keeps to herself, even if she had a question she would wait until everyone left to ask. It would be humiliating to ask a dumb question in front of everyone. Mr. William starts calling on people and answers their questions while the rest of the class writes everything down. This is a big exam, this could determine if we graduate from this class or not. Suddenly, it's five minutes before the end of class and Mr. William finishes up his answer. </p><p>"Alright everyone I hope you wrote down everything today. Study up tonight and you will all pass just fine. My office will be open early tomorrow so if you have any questions or need some assistance, please stop by. You are excused for the day." Chairs squeaked as the students stood up and gathered their belongings. Reily stuffed her notebook into her backpack and collected her books and pens. She waited for a few minutes to allow the other students to file out before she would try and leave. </p><p>"Miss. Dhar, a moment please." She was almost out of the room before he noticed. She sighed and headed back to the front of the class. "I know that you are struggling with this class, so please take my advice and come by in the morning. I want to help you succeed and pass this class with a high grade." Reily shook her head and smiled.</p><p>"Thank you Mr. William, but I have a couple of friends who will help me study tonight. If I have any questions I will come by." She turned around and started to leave.</p><p>"You realize how important it is for you to pass this class correct?" Reily stopped and thought over his words. This is the third time she has taken this class. She failed this exam the first two times, and if you don't pass it with at least a seventy percent you have to retake the whole course. You also had to pass this class to graduate. She was supposed to be done with school a semester ago, this was the last class she needed to pass.</p><p>"I am aware sir. I will do my best." She said confidently. With a nod from her professor, Reily turned back and left the classroom. </p><p>Reily stepped out of the building and was greeted with the warm summer sun. She took a deep breath to calm down her worries and headed back to her dorm. While walking back she over heard a conversation at a table.</p><p>"Yeah, I heard that they are paying college students a good amount for this."</p><p>"Well I would hope so! Getting a brain scan for whatever reason is worth a couple hundred dollars. Especially my brain."</p><p>"Your scan would be cheaper than a dollar menu burger." The boy who had talked about the money smacked the other boy on the shoulder. </p><p>Reily giggled at the guys joking around and walked back to her room. Once she unlocked the door her roommate yelled out in glee.</p><p>"Reily! Finally you're back! I have been so bored since you left!" She was jumping up and down all excited.</p><p>"Calm down Sam, I was only gone for about four hours." Reily laughed at her best friend and roommate. "Besides you have to help me study tonight remember?" Sam's excited grin turned upside down when she remembered her agreement. </p><p>"Shit, forgot about that." Reily sighed and walked past her to set her bag down. </p><p>"This is important Sam, I have to pass this time. I can't afford to take this class again." She sat down on the couch and rubbed her eyes. Sam walked over and hugged her around her shoulders. </p><p>"I'll help you if we can order Chinese for dinner!" Reily laughed and agreed. </p><p>The dorm room smelled like soy sauce and fried egg rolls after about fifteen minutes. The two girls laughed back and forth about their classmates and classes. Reily started thinking about what those guys were talking about, and decided to ask Sam about it.</p><p>"Hey Sam?"</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Have you heard of any new medical trails that are paying?"</p><p>Sam pondered for a second before smiling at her best friend.</p><p>"You know what! I did hear about a new one that involved brain scans! I also heard that it's paying better than the other ones that have come around." She winked at Reily who was lost in thought.</p><p>"I might check into it more tonight, might help out if I can have something in savings for when I have to retake this class." Sam jumped up and knelt down beside Reily.</p><p>"What's with this negative thinking! You're going to pass that exam and finish this class once and for all!" Sam stood up and posed like a superhero. "And I shall assist you and help you defeat this wicked villian of a test!" Reily laughed so hard she had a tear escape her eyes. Sam smiled triumphally and sat back down to finish her meal. </p><p>After they finished their dinner, Reily grabbed her computer and looked up the medical trial.</p><p>"PACE Laboratory, interesting name." She muttered to herself. Sam was scrolling through her phone, casually laughing at funny videos or pictures. Reily read through the introduction and what the trail is about.</p><p>"They want to do brain scans to help understand how different minds work? So like comparing someone with a mental illness to those who don't? That seems neat." Sam concluded after Reily explained what was said. Reily kept reading over the criteria for joining the experiment.</p><p>"So, all I have to do is answer some questions then I should get a call about a time. Easy enough." She clicked begin on the quiz and focused on her answers.</p><p>"Weren't we supposed to be studying for your big exam tomorrow?"</p><p>"Yeah I know, just give me a couple minutes to finish this." Sam shrugged her shoulders and went back to her phone.  There was fifty questions that needed answered before she would find out if she was accepted. Once she finished the questions, Reily's phone started buzzing.</p><p>"That was quick." She said as she read over the new message. "They want me to come by tomorrow evening. How did they plan that so quickly, I just finished the quiz?" Sam set down her phone and stood up.</p><p>"It's probably just a machine that sends out the message. You'll probably get a call tomorrow about what needs to happen or if it was a mistake." Reily nodded in agreement and shut down her computer. "But, we must study now!" She ran over to Reily's backpack and grabbed the folders. She hurried back to where they were sitting and tossed the folders onto the coffee table. </p><p>"Where do we need to start?" Sam stood tall over Reily who laughed at her best friend and grabbed the folder. </p><p>"Let's start with these problems." </p><p>***</p><p>After hours of studying, Reily finally cleared up the living room of papers and headed to bed. Sam dozed off on the couch and was snoring happily. Reily got changed and laid down in her bed, she stared up at the ceiling. </p><p>"Please let me pass this test tomorrow. I can not afford another quarter of classes." She tossed and turned for the majority of the night.</p><p>The morning rays slowly creeped into Reily's room and gently woke her up. She streched and checked the time. </p><p>"8:07. At least I got to sleep in a little today." She got dressed and headed out to the kitchen for breakfast. Sam was still sleeping on the couch, typical. Reily snuck past Sam and poured herself a bowl of cereal. She started going over her notes again to make sure that last night's studying stuck with her. It barely did, she groaned and started going over everything. </p><p>Her phone went off again and she looked over the new message from PACE. It has the details about what I can and can't do before the scan and the address. </p><p>"Looks legit at least. I just need to focus on my exam, I'll worry about being kidnapped later." She smiled at her joke and went back to studying. </p><p>***</p><p>The bell went off to signify that class was over. Reily panickily scribbled in her last couple of answers before Mr. William walked up to take her exam. </p><p>"Well, how do you think you did?"</p><p>"Better than last time, hopefully good enough to pass this time." She said confidently. Mr. William smiled and flipped through her answers. </p><p>"Hopefully, I'll have the grades out by tomorrow evening." With that he turned towards his desk while Reily left the room. She started heading to the lab for her brain scan right after she left the school. She checked with her maps and found the building. Walking inside she was greeted by the front desk receptionist and was directed to the back rooms to wait. Reily sat in a chair nervous and texting Sam about the place. A couple of moments goes by when the leading doctor walks in.</p><p>"Hello miss. Dhar?"</p><p>"Yes, and you must be Dr. Munshi?"</p><p>"Yes, you are here for the brain scan trial correct?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"Perfect, if you will just follow me into the other room we can get started." She stood up and followed the doctor to the farthest room. In the room was monitors and medical equipment. In the middle of the room was a large chair that had something the reminded her of a oversized helmet. The doctor motioned towards the chair and Reily sat down. </p><p>"Before we can get started I just need to go over a couple of questions. You're name is Reily Dhar correct?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"And your birthday is June 16, 1996?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"So you are twenty two years old and a junior in college."</p><p>"Yup." </p><p>'Alright we can start the scan up. Don't worry it's not going to hurt. It'll be like getting your picture taken."</p><p>Reily laughed nervously and watched the helmet come down and cover her head.</p><p>"This will only take a couple of seconds and then it'll be done." The doctor explained cheerfully. Reily took some deep breaths to calm down her nerves. The screens in the helmet lite up a little while the sensation of spinning took over. </p><p>"Just a little more and."</p><p>She couldn't hear what the doctor had to say. The light blurred together and became so intense. A white noise filled her eardrums and drowned out any other sound.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. UPSILON</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The helmet lifts up and over Reily's head as she blinks to adjust to the dark room. </p>
<p>"Doctor? Did something go wrong?" She rubbed at her eyes and waited for a reply. Silence followed her words while white noise filled her ears. Reily stands up shakily and tries to examine the room again. It feels colder or at least what she assumes is cold, she can't really feel anything. The room is dark besides a couple of blinking lights, one of them seems to be a light switch on the wall. Reily walked up to it and tried to find a switch, but it ended up being just a touch pad and the lights flared up to life. She held her arm up to block some of the harsh light until her eyes could focus on her surrondings.</p>
<p>This was not the same office she was just in. There were suits, almost like space suits lined up on the back wall behind her chair. There was monitors all around blinking red and saying OFFLINE. She walked up to a screen and hit the keyboard and tapped the screen. Nothing happened.</p>
<p>"Power must have gone out. Maybe this is just Sam pranking me." A small feeling a relief washed over her at the thought that this was just Sam's doing. "Alright! I'll play along, it's just like my video games, right? Turn the power on!" Reily laughed and went back to looking around the room. There was a large desk with a bunch of techy looking things on it. The word Omnitool was behind the desk on the wall. Reily glanced over it all and moved on to the door. </p>
<p>"Damn, locked." She banged on the door some to see if it would give, but it was sealed up tightly. A window was cracked next to the door, perhaps she could escape that way. Reily picked up a heavy box that was in the corner and chucked it at the window. The glass shattered and crashed down onto the floor in a million pieces. "Well, puzzle one completed. Find a way out of the room. Now for the power." Reily took a running start and jumped out the window and ran into the wall in a long hall. She looked around and noticed how quiet it truly was. "Sam? I'm going to beat your little game! Better throw something at me to stop my progress!" Reily called out and walked down the hall to the left. She turned the corner and noticed a large, sealed, round door. It looked like something that would be on a submarine. "How did she manage to pull this off? I only just found out about it last night. Unless it was all her and she planned it out like that. Wouldn't surprise me, honestly." Reily chatted with herself in the darkness as she turned around and walked past the first room to check on the other side. She turns a corner and sees an open door.</p>
<p>"Power room?" She jumped into the room and froze in place. "Defiantly not the power room." The room had broken robots laying on tables and the floor. It was errie seeing them in pieces like this. A strange black growth was pulsating slightly on a nearby desk. The growth had a blue glow around it with almost like little lights blink in and out. Reily felt compelled to touch it, but turned away and walked to the back of the room. There were more robots, but these were hanging from supports in the ceiling. One looked older and more withered in the back corner. Reily cautiously stepped towards it and could almost hear voices. She turned around startled at first until she realized that they were coming from the robot. The closer she got, the clearer they sounded.</p>
<p>"Are you just like the others? Going to freak out on me? How does some gel sound to fix you up? Yeah, you're freaky to look at. I'm just going to shut you down for now, alright?" Reily stood right in front of the robot's face and waited for the rest. "Yeah, I'm going to shut you-" Suddenly as if the voice had control, the lights turned off as a loud bang echoed down the halls. Reily fell to the ground in fear and pushed herself into the corner to wait. The bangs sounded like footsteps going past the room she was in and down the hall. Reily held her breath and stayed still incase the creature or person came into the room. The footsteps grew distant, she waited for a few more minutes to make sure the coast was clear. She stood up holding the wall for support before slowly walking towards the door. She looked down the hall and noticed what she figured was a locked door was blown off the wall and laying on the ground. She could see a light moving down the hall and around the corner. "Sam, what did you do?" She whispered.</p>
<p>She snuck through the now open door and went down a set of stairs. She was greeted with a room full of machines that popped and sparked randomly. "Finally, power room." She smiled to herself and headed towards the only other door in the room. Inside was an office, with a strange tool on a desk. </p>
<p>"Hey, this looks like that Omnitool. I should take this, maybe I can use this for the power and doors." She tossed the tool in her hand before stuffing it in her pocket. "If Sam is going to trap me in a video game, may as well act like the player." Reily checked around the office for any hints at where she was and anything else useful. After clearing the room, she headed back out and looked around the big room again. There wasn't a big switch for the power or at least a computer to tinker with, so Reily headed back to the room she woke up in. </p>
<p>"Maybe I was wrong about the power, maybe I just needed this the whole time?" She examined the tool. She found the room and jumped through the window again. She studied the desk and figured out that she needed something called a tool chip. "Alright, where can I find one of those, Oh!" Right in front of her was a small drawer that said TOOL CHIPS. Reily shook her head at her blindness and tried to open the drawer.</p>
<p>"Hmm.. locked." She casually laid the tool down when it clicked and the desk lit up around it. "What the?" </p>
<p>She had put the tool in a slot without realizing it. The screen next to the desk turned on with a walkthrough of how to use the Omnitool. </p>
<p>"Intreseting, so I was wrong with the power but the doors were just locked. Hopefully now I can get through any door." She punched in some buttons that was shown on the screen and a tool chip popped out and was able to be inserted into the Omnitool. The Omnitool's screen lights up and goes through the start up screen, finally it's ready to use. She holds the tool over the door touch pad and it blinks to green while the door slides open. </p>
<p>"Sweet, progress." Reily makes her way to the large round door that she spotted earlier. She holds the tool over the touch pad and watch the door locks spin into a new position before the door swings open. A faint glow floods the area that causes Reily to stop and stare at what is in front of her. </p>
<p>"Sam? How did? Wait."</p>
<p>In disbelief, Reily stares at a hallway that is completely enclosed with glass panels, underwater. She was on the ocean floor.</p>
<p>"This has to be fake, this can't really be underwater. This isn't real." Reily stumbles over her words as she tries to rationalize her surroundings. She takes a timid step and stares out the walls into the ocean. A faint light from the sun beams down letting her know that she isn't too deep. She places a hand on the glass and can feel the cold pressure from the water on the other side. "This can't be." She stops and just stares.</p>
<p>"Sam, this isn't funny anymore. Please stop this if this is you." She whispered and pleaded with no one. She closed her eyes and prayed with all her might that she would hear a distant laugh or feel someone shaking her. "Please get me out." She opened her eyes and was meet with two, big, dark eyes of a fish looking in. Reily jumped back and fell down, she looked back up at the fish and noticed it had the same growth and blue glow as the desk did in that room. The fish slowly turned and swam away, leaving Reily alone again.</p>
<p>"SAM!" Reily screamed out as loud as she could. She curled into a ball and started to panic. "Please! Someone!" Her voice echoed down the hallway and back into the area she just left. She was alone in this strange place. After calming down slightly she started going over what could have gone wrong. </p>
<p>"Maybe I was kidnapped? Yeah, strange doctor drugged me and sent me off to who knows where." She forced herself to stand up and look through the glass again. "If that's the case, there might be others trapped in here. I need to help them get to safety and find a way out." Having the plan in mind gives Reily a boost of courage as she hurries down the hall and opens the next door. </p>
<p>She walks carefully through the halls and checks in the rooms for anyone else or anything useful. She stops for a moment and listens for any voices or footsteps.</p>
<p>"Just a little more." It sounds like a women talking. Reily quickens her pace and hurries into the last room of the hall. She runs in and sees that she is alone still, but there is a robot laying on the floor. Reily stays still until the robot repeats itself again. "Just a little more." Reily cautiously walks to the robot and kneels down.</p>
<p>"Hello?" </p>
<p>"Just a little more."</p>
<p>"A little more of what? Can I help you?" </p>
<p>"Just a little more." Realizing that the robot won't say anything else, she stands up and looks around. The robot is covered in the growth and stuck to the floor. There is two tubes of growth connected to the desk in front of it, it seems to be drawing power from the computers. There's a screen flashing in red letters, LOW POWER. Reily tries to pull the tube off the desk, but the robot screams out in protest.</p>
<p>"No, stop! I just need a little more." Reily fights with herself on what she needs to do. Reluctantly, she tugs at the tube and it detaches from the desk with a splatter. The robot convulses on the ground and yells out in pain. The computer screen is still flashing LOW POWER, Reily prepares to pull on the next tube. </p>
<p>"Please! I never hurt anyone. I just needed more." Reily closes her eyes, says sorry to the robot, and pulls the last tube away from the desk. The robot looks up at her. "Why... I was fine... I was...." The robot's glow faded and it's head thudded to the ground. Reily looks away from what she did and glances at the computer screen.</p>
<p>"I need to transfer the power levels so that it's going to where I need it." She fumbles with the bars and graphs until the ground shakes and a loud bang echoes through the building. A bright light hits the window in front of Reily that she missed and she watches the generators roaring to life. The lights around her flicker on and all the doors unlock. "Yes! Finally!"</p>
<p>"Hello?" A man's voice reaches Reily's ears as she spins around. A face popped up on another computer, but it was glitching out to much to tell who it was. </p>
<p>"Hello! Is someone there!" She yells back. </p>
<p>"Hey! What's going on down there?"</p>
<p>"I'm not sure, I just fixed the power but I don't know what's going on?"</p>
<p>"Look, I can't hear you very well. I need you to head upstairs to the Communication center and call me there. I'm stationed at LAMBDA." He got the last word out before the screen popped and went dark. </p>
<p>"Lambda? What kind of place is that?" A door that was locked was now opened to let Reily progress further. "Communication center. I need to find that so I can talk to whoever that was." She walked through the door and immediately darted behind some boxes. "What in the world?"</p>
<p>Reily peeked over the boxes and could hear the thunderous footsteps of something. It sounded like something from a movie, a giant piece of machine walking around. There was something else too, she couldn't figure out if it was just the machines or if something was trying to talk. She looked over and noticed a large caged in generator; she darted over to it before the footsteps came any closer. She still hasn't seen whatever the thing was. A faint blue light bobbed towards the boxes she was just at and the steps were booming in her ears. She covered her head and sink further into the shadows. The light got brighter as the voice became more distorted and harsher. </p>
<p>Then she could see what it was. </p>
<p>It was a robot, like the other one except this one was walking. It was hunched over and had one big light for a face. It was covered in the same glowing black growth as everything was in this place. Reily made a mental note to try and avoid the growth any chance she got, or she feared she would turn into that. It looked around the boxes while still almost talking but it sounded as if the voice box was broken. She couldn't make out any words, but judging from the sounds and tone, she didn't want to be caught. She could see the stairs in the other corner and started sneaking the other way towards them. The robot stayed by the boxes, thudding it's oversized feet which was startling to Reily. She made it to the stairs and realized the way up was closed off. Not only was it closed off but there was a wall of hot steam going over the stairs from a busted pipe on the wall. She started looking for a valve or switch for ether of her problems. She found a lever to open the door she assumed, and back a ways she saw some pipes all leading to one valve. Reily took in a deep breath and quickly hurried to the valve.</p>
<p>The robot stopped moving and turned it's light right at Reily as soon as she started turning the wheel to turn the water off. "Shit!" She quickened her speed until the wheel broke off in her hands, but it looked like the steam was gone from the stairs. Loud clumsy bangs hurried towards her and she ran in the wrong direction from her freedom. "Shit!" She yelled to herself. The robot looked slow but was extremely fast. It would come close to Reily, but she would turn a corner faster than it could and she would put some distance between the two. She darted between generators and boxes until the distance between them was long enough for her to open the door and hurry up the stairs. </p>
<p>She made it back to the stairs and threw the lever down. She stood ready to run up the stairs but was also facing the robot. It screamed out and ran towards her. Before it started on the stairs, the door opened fully and Reily jumped up and hit the second lever to close it. </p>
<p>The robot banged on the door while Reily sat on the ground to catch her breath. "That was fucking close." She breathed and attempted to control her breathing. She looked around and noticed she was in a stairwell with signs. She read over the sign and figured out that she needed to go up one more floor for the communications center. There wasn't anymore stairs for her to go up so she knocked open the only door and fell into the room. </p>
<p>Inside was another office area with computers and desk, but there was also a small living area with a bed and table. Past that was some windows looking down at what she assumed was a converter belt for working on machines. There was some large robot arms for welding and repairing, but there was also another robot. It looked just like the one from the power room who was connected to the desk. In the middle of the office was another set of stairs leading up. Relieved to have found the way, Reily tried to flip the lever to open the door, but it was locked. </p>
<p>"Of course it's locked." She turned to the left and saw a long hallway and what looked like a person laying down. "Oh my god." She ran over but just before she leaned down to check on them, she knew they had been dead for a while now. </p>
<p>It was a man, he was in a full uniform and had an employee ID badge on his shirt. "Carl, damn." She stood up, unable to bear the sight of it and turned back to the main room. She walked over to the desk and tapped one of the monitors. The screen turned on and was waiting for a login code. </p>
<p>"No idea. Unless?" She ran back to the man in the hallway and looked at his ID number again. After repeating it over and over, she ran back to the computer and entered in the code. "Sweet." The screen changed to the main menu and she read down till she found the door locks. </p>
<p>"Alright now I just have to." She went to click on the link but the screen flashed red saying LOW POWER. "Fuck the power in this place." She laid her head down in frustration. but then she remembered the other robot. She stood up and walked down to the second area and approached the robot.</p>
<p>"Hey! Down here! I need some help, please!"</p>
<p>"How did you get here like this?"</p>
<p>"Look, I don't know, I was working on a robot then I ended up on the ground and I can't move. Just go find Amy and send her over here. Tell her that Carl is hurt and needs help, she'll know what to do." Reily froze and stared down at the robot as he waited for her to move. "Come on! Go and find her please!" </p>
<p>"But, what can she do? You're too heavy to move and you're connected to the wall?"</p>
<p>"What do you mean I'm too heavy to move! And I'm not connected to the wall I'm just hurt on the floor!" Reily tried to piece together what he was saying. He thinks he's Carl, but there is a body in the hall with the same name. She needed to test this out.</p>
<p>"If you're Carl, what's you're ID number?"</p>
<p>"What does that matter right now! Just get help!"</p>
<p>"I can't help you if I don't trust you!"</p>
<p>He turned his head and moved his arm up and down against the ground. He recited his number, and it matched up with the Carl's badge in the hallway. </p>
<p>"There is that enough proof, get help!" </p>
<p>"I, there isn't anyone else here." </p>
<p>"Bull shit, Amy is here! Just find her!" </p>
<p>"What are you?"</p>
<p>"God, these new robots! Look I'm human, look at my human arm waving at you're dumb screen! Get help!" Reily froze again and stared down at him. What did he mean.</p>
<p>"No, I'm human you're a robot." Reily turned and ran out of the room, too lost in her worry and thoughts. "Wait, please!"</p>
<p>She huddled up against the wall and tried to slow down her breathing. She looked at her arms and could see almost like breaks in reality showing that her arms were dark and had small patches of growth on them. "No, no, no. This can't be happening." A sudden bang from the door snapped her back. The robot from downstairs was breaking through the door. She would have time to freak out later, or at least get answers from the man that had called her. She needs to get out of here and to safety. She went back to the computer and realized that she needed to transfer the power to link up with the door instead of somewhere else. </p>
<p>She found the switch she needed to flip and ran back into the room with Carl the robot in.</p>
<p>"Look, I'm sorry for what I said. Just help." She walked briskly past him and grabbed the lever. </p>
<p>"I'm sorry." She threw down the switch and was plunged in darkness. Even Carl's lights turned off. "I'm so sorry." She muttered and ran back past Carl.</p>
<p>The banging was getting faster and louder as the door creaked under the strain. She smashed the button to transfer the power to the door's lever and ran to throw it down. </p>
<p>The door blew open and the robot stepped up the stairs and faced Reily. The door opened for her and she darted up as the robot ran full speed at her. She tripped at the top and barely had time to pull the new lever to close the door. She heard a horrible thud, the robot must have fallen down when the door closed. </p>
<p>After catching her breath and taking a moment to relax slightly, she took a second to look around. The whole ceiling was a glass dome that fully captured the beauty of the ocean. There was a huge screen at the other end of the room that was hooked up to monitors and computers. <br/>"Let's see what this does." She stood up and walked over to the desk. </p>
<p>The screen lit up and brought up all the locations for communication. </p>
<p>"Lambda, I need to find Lambda." She looked down the list until she found the number for that station. She punched in the code and followed the instructions for connecting through for the call.</p>
<p>"Hello? Please someone." </p>
<p>"Hey! You made it!" The man's voice was calming and also had an accent to it. She realized that it was Irish, which was strange to hear in the middle of America. to hear for once. On the screen was his profile. He had scruffy short brown hair, a short but thick dark beard with a goatee, and his eyes were a deep blue. He was smiling, honestly she felt comfort in seeing someone's face.</p>
<p>"Yeah, so what's going on here?" </p>
<p>"What do you mean? Where were you working?"</p>
<p>"Working? Uh a coffee shop in Ohio?"</p>
<p>"Like before you moved here to Upsilon?"</p>
<p>"What is Upsilon! Why am I in the ocean with talking robots and everything is just dead and destroyed!"</p>
<p>The man was silent for a moment.</p>
<p>"What year is it?"</p>
<p>"What!" Reily gripped the desk tightly.</p>
<p>"Just tell me what year it is."</p>
<p>"2018 like it's supposed to be."</p>
<p>The man sighed and gathered his thoughts.</p>
<p>"Look, I'm not sure what happened for you to end up here; but it's 2106."</p>
<p>Reily felt her knees get weak and turn to jelly. She noticed that she was barely breathing and attempted to focus on her breath. </p>
<p>"It's, wait. How?"</p>
<p>"Like I said, I'm not sure but if you come to Lambda I can better explain what I think might have happened." </p>
<p>"Where! How do I get there?"</p>
<p>"Just take the shuttle that is right outside this station. It'll take you right to Lambda. I'll be waiting here for you!"</p>
<p>The screen went black as Reily tried to yell back another question. </p>
<p>"This is real. How did I end up almost a century in the future! How am I going to get home, or can I even get home." Reily asked herself these questions while she mindlessly walked back to the only door in the room. She pulled on the lever but it snapped in her hand. </p>
<p>"Uh oh." A loud crack startled her as the ceiling started to leak. "No, wait!" The glass cracked more and the pressure was about to give out. She ran back to try and call the man again for help. "I don't even have a suit or any way to breath! I'm going to die in here!" The ceiling gave away again as gallons of water fell into the room. Reily tried to climb to higher ground, but the whole ceiling caved in. Reily was swept off her feet as she flew around in the water until she hit the screen and passed out. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. UPSILON - LAMBDA</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily gracefully falls down to the ground through the water. She stirs awake and scrambles around for a moment while holding her breath. She tries to figure out a way out before she has to breath, but it catches up to her. She lets a gasp escape, but doesn't feel any water going into her mouth.</p><p>She looks down and sees the same dark covering over her arms with the glowing growth on her. </p><p>"Must have woken up in a suit?" She was able to talk to herself so she took in a deeper breath to relax more. "Alright, now just have to find that shuttle station and head to wherever he said." She tried to swim up but couldn't get much higher than a normal jump. "Strange." </p><p>She started climbing up over the desk and finally made it to the bottom of a hole in the wall. She pulled herself up and out of the station and landed on the ocean floor. She turned back and looked at the ruins of the Upsilon station, the dome was shattered and destroyed from the ocean's pressure. The rest of the building looked worn down and had plants growing up the walls and around the doors. She looked around her and found the path to the shuttle station. There was light poles doting down a path, along with various monitoring equipment for whatever reason. Reily started her walk and kept close to the lights, unsure of what might be lurking around. A couple of fish would swim past, some would look normal. Others had the black growth with blue lights stuck to them. Still not sure what the growth was, Reily stayed away from those fish. </p><p>She pressed on, checking around her to make sure nothing was sneaking up behind her. Finally she could see what looked like a hatch into a tunnel a ways away. She quickened her pace and ran towards the door. She got up to the switch to open the door, but the door didn't budge. </p><p>"Shit, how do I open this now?" She threw her hands up and looked around for anything to help. She could make out a faint glow under some rubble and headed towards it. </p><p>She pushed some of the rocks away and a little robot flew up and spun around gleefully. "Whoa! You ok?" She waited for a response. The little robot chirped at her and nudged against her shoulder. "Alright, so not the kind that can talk. What can you do?" She thought out loud as she watched the little guy buzz around her. She laughed to herself and headed back to the door to see if the robot could mess with it. "Can you get past the security or something with this control panel?" She pointed towards the switch and waited for the robot to come over. Instead the robot went up to the door and started welding at it. "Wait, are you seriously?" The little guy moved around the edge of the door while the metal glowed a bright orange. </p><p>It got down to the bottom before the door popped open and swung out slowly. The robot turned off it's welder and hovered over Reily and chirped at her. "Thanks! I wish I could name you, but I'm not sure if I'll see you again." She said sadly. The robot chirped a low tone and nudged at her again. "I won't forget about you, and you're welcome for helping you out!" She patted it's head before it turned and buzzed away. Reily pushed against the door and opened it enough for her to squeeze in.</p><p>The small room was flooded and covered in barnacles and seaweed. There was a button that was flashing on the side to drain out the room. She pulled on the door as hard as she could to try and seal off the room before flushing out the water. The door clicked shut and she punched the button. A red light flashed from the ceiling while an alarm sounded. She could see the water level dropping quickly and it eventually passed her and disappeared into the ground. After a moment the next door opened slowly to expose the shuttle's ruins. </p><p>"Hello?" She figured no one would respond, but it was worth a shot. The shuttle station was destroyed and decaying. Reily carefully stepped around fallen ceiling and just normal debris. She found the shuttle and checked around before attempting to open it. It didn't budge, of course. She checked around the rest of the room and found nothing to aid her in opening the door. </p><p>"Well, I guess I'll just have to try the railway. Find a maintenance room and see if I can find a breaker box." She hopped down and ran along the tracks and found a slightly ajar door. She hurried in, but immediately was taken aback when she saw what was inside. </p><p>A women was laying on rubble and was barely breathing. Her eyes were closed but there was tubes and growth going into her body that was hooked up to the power box. There was two tubes in her chest that were connected to what looked artificial lungs next to her. </p><p>"Oh my god." Reily stared in horror at the women, trying to decide between talking or running. </p><p>"Hello?" Her voice was weak and hoarse. "Is someone there?"</p><p>"Hello?"</p><p>"Please help me." Reily took a couple steps toward the women and couldn't take her eyes off her. "I just had to fix the power to the shuttle, and this attached to me. It won't let me die, I just want to go home." She wanted to cry but couldn't make any tears.</p><p>"I don't know how to help you."</p><p>"Just get Carl. He can help me." That was the robot from the other station. Who was it that he kept asking for?</p><p>"Is you're name Amy?"</p><p>"Yes."</p><p>"I'm sorry to tell you this but, Carl didn't make it."</p><p>"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. It's been so long since I left Upsilon."</p><p>"How can I help you?" Reily begged Amy. Amy closed her eyes, exhausted from their conversation and took in shallow breathes. Reily stood up and looked at the tubes going into the power box. She remembered the robot at the desk in Upsilon. It was connected just like this, but it died when she unplugged it. The power was restored, but at what cost. Could she do that again, this time with an actual human? </p><p>Reily held her breath and pulled on one of the tubes.</p><p>"What are you doing! Stop!" Amy cried suddenly. Reily closed her eyes and grabbed onto the last tube. This is a fate worse than death, to be left alone in this place like that. Reily tugged at the tube until it released from the box and slipped out of her hands. Amy gasped for a last breath before going limp. Reily looked down at her while the lights flared to life around her. </p><p>"I'm sorry Amy. I couldn't leave you like this again." Reily turned around and headed out of the room, closing the door behind her. She hurried to the shuttle and opened the door. </p><p>"Alright, lets get out of here." She swiped her Omnitool and sat down in the chair facing the front windows. She hit the blinking button next to her and the door locked itself. The shuttle started with a lurch and she was on her way to Lambda. A map glowed next to her showing that she would arrive there in about 10 minutes. Reily leaned back to enjoy her trip.</p><p>Some time passes until a warning flashed over the windshield. </p><p>"What, debris in way. Well what can I do-" The shuttle jolted and twisted to the side sending Reily flying backwards. The front of the shuttle smashed and pushed over the blockage while the rest of the vehicle twisted around it. Reily held on to a seat next to her at just the right time. The front lifted up high and hit the ceiling before settling down on its side. Reily laid on the ground, counting her blessings for still being alive. She stood up after a bit and treaded slowly to the front and stepped out of the shuttle. She lost her footing and fell to the ground in a heap, a distant ringing was going off. </p><p>After she gathered her thoughts and checked herself for injuries, she walked down the rail and found something that resembled a phone. </p><p>"Hello?"</p><p>"Hey, are you alright?" It was the man she was supposed to be meeting. </p><p>"Not really, the shuttle just crashed. I think I'm alright though.</p><p>"That's good at least. You're almost here though! I think you could get here on foot now. There should be an emergence hatch that will have a ladder for you to climb out. You got this!"</p><p>The call ended and Reily took a deep breath. "I can do that, climb a ladder, easy enough." She started running down the tunnel until she found the hatch the man had mentioned. She opened it and crawled in while closing the hatch. Once she was inside she had to fill the area with water before she could open the top hatch to get out. She hit the button and water started flooding in from the ground. Once the water was at the top, the top hatch lifted open and Reily started climbing up the ladder.</p><p>The man was right though, she was close to the next building. It was less than a mile away, Reily started walking towards it. Filled with courage she quickened her pace until she made it to the door.</p><p>"Well, Lambda. I made it." She hit the button and the door swung open slowly. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. LAMBDA</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily walked into the small entrance and hit the button to drain the room before she could walk into the new building. She walked through the next door and heard a voice coming from down the hall.</p>
<p>"Hey! Fuck off! Leave this place!" There was a loud clatter and heavy footsteps. Reily ducked into the corner to hid, she could hear the monstrous robot walking away from where she was. After sitting in silence for a bit, she finally stood up and checked to make sure the coast was clear. She walked down the hall and walked into the first opened room.</p>
<p>"Oh! Hey! Over here!" The man's voice called out to Reily. She looked around the room but was alone. </p>
<p>"Where? I don't see you."</p>
<p>"On the floor, that bitch of a robot knocked me down." She looked at the ground and saw a robot laying in pieces. It had a large screen for a head where it showed that same dark haired picture of the man she was talking too.</p>
<p>"Great, you're a robot too?" </p>
<p>"Well takes one to know one. Could you help me out?"</p>
<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p>
<p>"Just I know you have to have an Omnitool, so could you just stick my chip to your tool and plug me into the computer over there?" It's head turned towards a small desk with a monitor and a place to connect the Omnitool. </p>
<p>"I mean what choice do I have?" </p>
<p>"Good answer!" The screen went dark and a compartment on his back opened up to reveal a chip.</p>
<p>"Just need to stick you to my Omnitool huh?" She picked up the chip and almost dropped in in surprise. It had some of that glowing growth clinging to it. She examined the chip and realized that it wasn't moving or attempting to get onto her. She shrugged and stuck it onto her Omnitool. The growth acted almost as a binding agent and the chip was secured to her tool. She looked around the lab and found the computer the man had mentioned and connected her tool to it. The screen came to life and the man's picture appeared on the screen.</p>
<p>"Whoa, weird feeling." He muttered to himself. </p>
<p>"What do you mean? You're essentially just a chip."</p>
<p>"Well, yeah but I still can feel. It's just not a physically feeling but just a mental one. Anyways, thanks for helping me out there, I would have eventually shut down being on the floor like that." </p>
<p>"Yeah yeah, no problem. So, as much as I love our current conversation, WILL YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHATS GOING ON?" She didn't mean to shout, but after everything happening she was starting to lose it. She stared at the screen with pleading eyes and waited while the man she assumed gathered his thoughts.</p>
<p>"Well, let's start from the beginning. What's your name?"</p>
<p>She was taken aback, how could he be so relaxed! He was a robot for crying out loud! </p>
<p>"How will that help me to understand what's going on and how I ended up here?"</p>
<p>"It'll help me try to understand what happened. I might be a robot but I was once a human, a not very smart one at that. So just trust me and tell me about you." </p>
<p>"My name is Reily Dhar, I am twenty two years old and I live in Columbus Ohio."</p>
<p>"Huh, it's been a long time since I have heard of Ohio."</p>
<p>"What does that mean?"</p>
<p>The man skipped over her question and jumped to the next topic.</p>
<p>"You said it was 2018 right?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, what else would I say?" She huffed at the screen. As comforting as it was to hear another voice, this guy was getting on her nerves. </p>
<p>"Did you do anything that involved a brain scan or had some kind of injury?" Reily stopped and stared at the man in disbelief. How did he know that? "From your silence, I guess that means I'm right. What happened exactly?"</p>
<p>"I went in for a medical study, for some extra cash to make it through college." </p>
<p>"Alright, well that answers how you ended up here. I'm still not sure why but I can tell you how." Reily grabbed the desk and held on tight in anticipation. "So before I can tell you how you got here, I need to tell you where you are. You might want to pull up a chair." The picture never changed but she could hear him smiling. She followed what he said and dragged a chair up to the desk and relaxed slightly.</p>
<p>"You are standing in the last push to save humanity." He spoke those words like it was something to be proud of. Reily felt her stomach drop and a lump form in her throat. </p>
<p>"What do you mean by that?"</p>
<p>"About 10 years ago, our satellites picked up a large meteor heading towards Earth. We tried to send out spaceships to intercept and or destroy the meteor, but nothing was going to stop it from hitting our planet. So, a small team got together and figured they could save humanity's minds instead of our bodies. We didn't have a way to store these scans until our crew leader Catherin Chun started working on what is like a giant black box. Like the ones used on planes from your time." He stopped for a moment, but Reily sat quietly and patiently waited for more. </p>
<p>"She started on a prototype and managed to make a couple of scans that made it onto this black box. We had to move to the bottom of the ocean for two reasons. First because the meteor ended up moving faster than our readings had shown, so we were running out of time. Secondly, we had to have a way to protect this precious box. Catherin made up a casing for this box that could sustain it for thousands of years out in space. It has solar panels and jets on it to keep it moving and full of power to keep the black box functioning for the minds inside. I wasn't apart of the team to make up the machine to get it into space, but I know that it's almost like a huge gun. It's at the very bottom of the ocean so the box has enough time to be traveling fast enough to make it to space."</p>
<p>"So, we are at the bottom of the ocean, or well somewhat the bottom, and the surface is just ash?"</p>
<p>"Yeah unfortunately. The meteor hit about 3 years ago."</p>
<p>"Was there any survivors maybe?" Reily clinched her hands and waited for his answers.</p>
<p>The man sighed and quietly answered. "No. the people helping down here were the only ones who lived." </p>
<p>"Oh." Reily felt her knees turn to jelly at the thought of everyone she ever cared about dying from that meteor. Where was she, just sleeping all this time? Or did she just disappear after that scan and her family thought she ran away. </p>
<p>"So, how did I end up here?"</p>
<p>"You might have been just a normal scan for something different. Over time however, your scan might have helped us to understand something with the black box. That's the only way I can see a connection from your time to now." Reily felt even more confused than when she first walked into this room. "I'm sorry that I don't have a more fulfilling answer for you. That's the only way I can see that happening." </p>
<p>Reily tried to keep herself calm for the moment. Her brain couldn't wrap around what all he was saying. She just couldn't stop thinking about her friends and family. "Sam."</p>
<p>"What did you say?"</p>
<p>"Nothing sorry, so what happened with the box?"</p>
<p>"I should also add that we didn't just call it the box, it's formal name is the ARK."</p>
<p>"Like the old bible passage? The ARK saved all the animals from the flood?"</p>
<p>"You could say that. It's keeping the last shard of humanity safe." Reily nodded, attempting to grasp the situation. "As far as what happened, I am a scan from early in the project. The real living version of me might have seen it take off, but I can't say for sure what happened. You know what, I keep forgetting that I can dig through the files like this, I can probably find where the ARK is! Give me a moment." The screen went quiet while Reily went over everything he had said in her mind. "God damn it."</p>
<p>"What's wrong?"</p>
<p>"The program I need to be able to track it is locked down right now. Could you help me out with something else?"</p>
<p>"Sure."</p>
<p>"Go into the other room and try to see if you can track the ARK on the main computer, this one seems to have restrictions. I'll unlock the door for you." Reily heard a click coming from down the hall and stood up. </p>
<p>"So what do I do? I'm not exactly good with computers and such."</p>
<p>"It'll be an option right on the home screen. It should say ARK LOCATOR or at least I'm hoping it does." Reily nodded and headed out into the hallway. She found the now unlocked door and hit the touch pad. The door slide to the side and exposed another lab full of computers, desk, and some boards with formulas and writing. She walked to the computer and tapped the screen.</p>
<p>Sure enough, there was an option for ARK locator and she hit the button. A map of the galaxy showed up and she figured out that she needed to tap the screen so it could scan that area. </p>
<p>"Well, bad news is that it's not in space."</p>
<p>"Shit, well see if it's on Earth somewhere." She clicked on the Earth and the map zoomed in and showed a world map. She clicked around until it zoomed into the ocean. She kept going until a green light glowed, showing where the ARK was.</p>
<p>"Uh, what's TAU?" </p>
<p>"Wait, it's there! It didn't even leave TAU? What happened to the team that was supposed to shoot it off?" The man sighed and mumbled to himself. "I owe it to Catherin to get that ARK to safety, I know we just met and you are confused and lost; but could you please help me with this? As you can tell, I'm not able to move around on my own." Reily took a step away from the screen and thought over her situation. If what all he said was true, there wasn't a home for her to go back to. This wasn't some prank that her friend was pulling on her, she wasn't tripping out on something, this was real. She was existing in 2106, almost a century into the future. She was just eating dinner with Sam last night, took her stupid exam this morning. Now she was asked to shoot a black box into space! She looked down at her arms and could clearly tell that Carl was right, she was a robot too. Under the pressure of finally coming to terms with everything, Reily collapsed to the floor.</p>
<p>Before she blacked out, she could hear the man calling her name.</p>
<p>***</p>
<p>Reily gasped for breath for some reason, habit perhaps? She blinked and looked around, hoping to see her room and she was just having an awful dream.</p>
<p>"Reily! Are you ok!" She groaned and hit her head on the floor. It was the man calling to her, not Sam. She steadied herself and stood up slowly, but then quickly walked back to the first room and walked right up to the screen with his face on it. </p>
<p>"Can you see me?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"What am I?"</p>
<p>"You look like a dive suit, with red eyes. If we find a scanner, I can tell you exactly what you are." Reily looked down and allowed herself to believe his words. It would make since for her to be a robot, that's why she hasn't gotten tired from the running and walking around. How she survived the ceiling caving in back at Upsilon. He must have been right, that she was just a scan from all those years ago.</p>
<p>She turned her back to the man and sat down.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry, I wish I could offer something more to help. All I know is, is that the world is fucked. But we have a chance to save what humanity did. I understand if you need time, but I desperately need your help." His words bounced around in her head, or what would be her head. She was so confused and scared, she didn't know what to say or do. She held her head in her hands and felt the urge to cry, but no tears formed in her eyes. The man stayed quiet while she tried to understand what all he had said. </p>
<p>Time went by and she calmed down enough to think a little more clearly. She could sit here in self pity, let the ARK rot away at the bottom of the ocean. Or, she could fight this. She can save humanity and do something worthwhile with her life. </p>
<p>"Are we apart of the ARK yet?" </p>
<p>"No, but if I have some time I'm sure I can rig something up so when we hit that launch button, it'll just scan us right to the ARK before it takes off." She nodded and thought it over again. Finally, she stood up and walked to the screen.</p>
<p>"Alright, I figured my only other option is to just rot away in this room and cry about what's happening. I'll help you retrieve the ARK and send it off to space." </p>
<p>"Thank you so much! This is amazing, alright we need to head to THETA, there is something we need from there to get down to TAU. I'll eject the Omnitool so you can take me with you." </p>
<p>"Wait!"</p>
<p>"What?"</p>
<p>"I told you about me, but I don't even know your name?" The man was quiet for a moment before answering.</p>
<p>"Just call me Jack, it's a nickname my coworkers here called me."</p>
<p>"Why did you decide to work on this project?"</p>
<p>"I was already studying with Catherin before the meteor was discovered. I wasn't apart of the bigger team that lead the project, but I was second in command with Catherin. I mostly helped with the brain scans and designing the world inside the ARK. I hope I get to see it." he sounded hopeful. Reily just didn't want to be alone again, but she knew they needed to head out soon. </p>
<p>"One last question before we leave, do you know what this is? I keep seeing it everywhere, it's on robots, people, the fish outside." She held her arms up to show the growth wrapping around her.</p>
<p>"That stuff was an early project to help save humanity before we came up with the ARK. It's called the WAU, its an artificial intelligent gel substance. We used it to better update out technologies and to protect our facilities. Something went wrong and it started lashing out and taking control over the robots. It doesn't seem to want to hurt humans, but mostly to keep them alive. I would advise on staying away from it, A robot that was covered in it is what knocked me down and broke me." Reily understood and looked towards the pile of metal on the floor. The screen was shattered and the wires were sparking and smoking.</p>
<p>"Alright, so how do we get to THETA?"</p>
<p>"Well, we need a shuttle or escape pod to fly over there. It's too far to walk, but the shuttle was destroyed when you were coming here. Hold on, let me try something." It was quiet again while Jack looked through some files. "Yes, there we go. There is an escape pod just outside this station. Just turn to the right when you walk out the front and it'll be right there." Reily nodded and reached for the Omnitool.</p>
<p>"Sounds good, I'll talk with you in a few."</p>
<p>Jack chuckled and the Omnitool clicked as he ejected it from the desk. Reily grabbed the tool and walked back out into the hallway. She was lost in thought as the airlock filled up with water again. </p>
<p>She was a robot in the year 2106. A meteor hit the earth, destroying everything on land. Now she was heading into the deepest part of the ocean to shoot a giant gun that is loaded with the last memories of humanity. The only other person she has talked to is sitting in her pocket and is connected to a tool that opens doors.</p>
<p>Everything feels crazy and terrifying. </p>
<p>The hatch opens again, and the little robot who helped her before was hovering outside. It chirped at her in excitement and flew around in circles. Reily chuckled and reached out a hand to pet the top of it like a dog. </p>
<p>"This might be insane but I promise Jack, we will save the ARK."</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. LAMBDA - THETA</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sure enough, there was an escape pod to the right a fair ways away. The little robot followed Reily while lighting a path to the pod. Reily opened the side door and waved goodbye to the little robot. She walked to the control panel and set the Omnitool into its spot.</p>
<p>"That was fast." Jack's voice echoed through the water inside the pod. </p>
<p>"Let's hurry and get to THETA." Reily said back with a smile, or at least she would smile if she could. Jack initiated the draining, once it was finished he tried turning the pod on. </p>
<p>"Well, that's disappointing." </p>
<p>"Doesn't work?"</p>
<p>"Nope. but there is a ship wreak just a little further down the hill. There might be a working escape pod inside? Worth a look." Jack spook with a hopeful tone. </p>
<p>"Alright, I'll check it out and let you know if I find anything. Well, I guess you would know because I'll just connect you to it." Jack laughed and unplugged the Omnitool from the pod's control panel.</p>
<p>Reily stepped back out and waved at the robot again. The little guy hurried back to her and chirped around. Reily chuckled at him and started walking down the hill. She was about half way when she sensed that someone was lurking around behind her. She turned around and saw what looked like a man, but he was disfigured and glowing blue. </p>
<p>"Is that the WAU?" She stared in horror at the creature. It didn't move for a moment, but then sprinted at Reily. She yelped and ran down the hill, almost tripping over her own feet. The robot that was with Reily sped ahead of her and found the ship wreak. It started opening the door and was ready to seal her inside. She ran towards the door while the creature closed the gap between them. She threw herself through the door and heard a loud thud and a loud screech. She turned around and looked through the window of the door. The little robot had closed the door and started to weld it shut, but the creature grabbed him.</p>
<p>"No!" She yelled out, but watched the thing rip at the robot, throwing chunks of him to the side. She ducked down and tried to calm herself down, she was still in danger. She started to crawl towards the open door in the room without alerting the creature to her movements. It was still ripping apart the robot outside, screaming in frustration as he did. She slowly made it out of the room and walked quietly up the stairs and went into a new hallway. Reily, feeling safe for the moment, sat down on the ground and allowed herself some time to calm down after what had just happened. It might have just been a robot, and it wasn't with her for long, but it sacrificed himself for her. For some reason, it liked her and now it was gone forever. </p>
<p>She had a flashback of her sitting in Lambda, panicking about everything going on and wanting to give up. She looked up and remembered her decision. There's no time for crying, focus on what needs to get done and do it. She stood up, filled with determination and strength. She will not let her friend's death go in vein. </p>
<p>Reily began checking around the ship for any sign to an escape pod. She didn't get a good chance to look at the ship when she was outside, but it seemed huge. The place was destroyed for the most part, there was some computers that had more information about what happened on the surface. She would skim through them to better understand what had happened and what was done to save everyone. After wondering around for a little longer, she noticed some red lights on the floor.</p>
<p>"Must lead to something important." She stated. She started to follow them and noticed an even brighter green glow coming from a hallway. She turned a corner and read a sign over the green glow.</p>
<p>ESCAPE POD</p>
<p>"Yes! Finally!" She ran inside and tossed the Omnitool into the control panel.</p>
<p>"Hey! You found one!" Jack's voice was soothing to hear after being alone. </p>
<p>"Yeah, had a little trouble getting in but I found it after walking around for a while in here."</p>
<p>"Well, sorry you had issues but you made it here.  So let's get this puppy fired u-, oh shit." </p>
<p>"What now?"</p>
<p>"Something is keeping this pod in lockdown. I'm not sure why, there isn't any threat or any problems that I can see. Maybe go check in the engine of the whole ship. If something is keeping this ship running, that could explain the lockdown for us."</p>
<p>"Alright, I'll be back soon." She turned and headed out of the light and back into the dark hallways. She walked through the ship, checking all the corridors and rooms for any sign about the engine room. She passed by living areas with tvs still somewhat working, and other small offices with floating supplies. She went down some stairs again but heard footsteps and grumbling from down a hallway. Reily hid behind a wall and waited for a moment. The grunts were getting closer, she had to get away before it got to close. She darted to the other side where there was a door and dashed inside. She peeked around the corner and watched as the creature from before stepped out into the stair well. He was twitching and muttering to himself in a broken tone. His body was covered in the WAU and his head looked like it had been smashed several times under a car. He was glowing blue from the WAU, it was almost blinding to look at him for too long. </p>
<p>The creature looked around a couple of times before shuffling down the stairs. Reily waited for sometime to pass before creeping out of the side room and heading down the hall. She hurried down another set of stairs and kept listening for if the creature was coming back. Darting past rooms in case there was more lurking, Reily stumbled into the engine room and was startled by what she saw. The WAU was connected to all the generators and equipment that was keeping the ship running. She looked over the screens for each machine and noticed that they were on the verge of collapsing. </p>
<p>"So the WAU is keeping the ship from exploding? Why would it care to save this one ship?" She stood in the middle of the room and looked around at all the tubes and growth twitching around her. "I have one shot at this, any creatures that are close will probably come for me as soon as I start pulling on these." She sighed and prepared herself to run back to the escape pod with Jack. She went up to the first one, the screen read REACTOR. </p>
<p>"Looks important. Be a shame if someone was to." She grabbed the tube and pulled as hard as she could. With a splatter and pop, the growth fell to the ground and turned slightly. The ship rocked as the reactor went into a dangerous zone and was flashing red warnings. She turned around and ran to the next machine that was connected. COOLANT, Reily pulled and disconnected the WAU and turned to another one. She grabbed the next tube and pulled, the force she had to use knocked her down after it came lose. She hit her head on the railing and was dazed. Loud alarms were going off and red lights were flashing all around her. </p>
<p>"I guess I did it?' She sat up slowly and looked around. Her eyes gazed towards the door and she held her breath. The creature from before was standing there, looking around the room in almost a panic. Reily stood up and looked around for another way out, but where the creature stood was the only door in the room. The creature's gaze locked on hers and screamed out, it ran towards her which Reily dodged it's attack and made it past it. She ran out the door while the creature screamed and chased after her. She followed the red lights on the ground while the alarms sounded off around her, slightly distracting her from where she was running. The creature reached out an arm at her and she felt it's fingers grab her shoulder. She turned sharply to the left and ran down the hallway.</p>
<p>"Shit, where did the lights go!" She kept running, but between the sounds and being chased, she lost her path. She ran until she recognized one of the main living rooms and saw the red light path lightening up the floor. "There! Back on track." With her new determination, she pushed herself to run even faster and could see the faint green glow of the escape pod. The creature jumped forward at Reily and managed to grab her leg. She fell down and hit her head on the ground hard, the creature scrambled up to her and grabbed her arms. She wrestled with it, trying to push it away but it was just a little stronger than her. </p>
<p>"JACK!" She screamed out, she was hoping she was close enough for him to hear her. If this is where she dies, she didn't want to be alone. The creature roared in her face and grabbed her by the head. It started to push on the sides of her head, making her vision start to blur. She felt her arms fall to her side, but then a thought crossed her mind.</p>
<p>"Focus on what needs to be done, and do it." She gasped out her promise. She felt her arms raise up and grab the creature by it's head and used more pressure on his skull. The creature lessened his hold on her and cried out in pain. She forced her fingers into it's head, the harder she pushed the closer she was to freedom. The creature let go of her head and grabbed at her arms, trying to free itself but Reily wasn't going to let go that easily. The creatures cries were growing louder and higher pitched until it went quiet suddenly. Reily let go as the body crumbled onto the ground in a fetal position. She stared down at her hands and watched the black goo drip from her fingers and onto the goo covered body. </p>
<p>"What have I done?" She uttered shakily. She took a step back and kept her eyes on the body, secretly hoping it would move. "I didn't kill it, I couldn't have?" She was in a daze of fear and confusion. Did she just kill someone? It had a body, a voice, and she just took that away from it. She dropped her hands and walked backwards towards the escape pod entrance. </p>
<p>"Reily! Are you there!" She could hear Jack yelling for her in the distance. She blinked a couple of times before running into the pod. </p>
<p>"There you are, I heard you scream and then it was quiet. What happened?"</p>
<p>"Just get us out of here. This place might explode, I pulled on a lot of things." She whispered and sat down in the chair. </p>
<p>"Alright, give me a second to drain the pod before we can leave." The pod rumbled and shook as the water level dropped. She wasn't sure if it was shaking from draining the water out or if the whole ship was about to blow up. She didn't care too much on ether option. "There, hold on to something!" Jack commanded, Reily rested her arm on the side of the chair as the pod launched forward and flew through the water. </p>
<p>"Now tell me what happened back there. You look more freaked out than when I told you that you were a robot." Jack was worried for her, she understood why but didn't want to admit to what she did. </p>
<p>"The creature came back, found me in the engine room. I managed to almost make it here, but I lost the path of lights leading to the pod. It caught up to me and we fought." She paused when a distant sound echoed through the ocean. It sounded like thunder.</p>
<p>"Hold on to that thought, the ship is exploding. I hope the blast doesn't affect our navigation, we should be fine." A deep rumble sounded behind them, but gradually grew louder. "I was wrong, hold on to something!" Reily clung onto the seat just before the whole ship lurched forward and started to spin. Her body was flung up and to the side with the way the pod was moving. Her grip was getting weak, until they smacked into something and she let go. She could faintly feel when they hit the ground, but she couldn't see anymore.</p>
<p>Reily slowly woke back up and looked around. The control panel that Jack was at was busted and he was gone. The whole pod was laying on it's side, making it difficult to know which way is up at first. </p>
<p>"Jack?" She whispered. She didn't want to be alone in this place, she barely knew where she was. "He's fine, just the screens are dead. I need to get us out of here and figure out where we landed." She stood up and adjusted to the titled pod, she grabbed her Omnitool and looked up at the what was once the side door. She punched at the door until it popped and some water started to pour in.</p>
<p>"Shit, this is going to be tough." The pod was still dry on the inside, and the pressure of letting in that much water could crush her. She needed to slowly open the door to let it fill up before she can leave. She punched at the door, making a bigger hole that was dumping in water. She stopped and leaned against the current side of the pod while it filled up.</p>
<p>"Back at home, I would have been scared of this. Trapped in a vessel, watching it fill up with water this fast. Times have changed." She chuckled a little at herself while the water went over her head. She waited for just a little longer to make sure the pod was fully filled with water before going back to the door. Her punches were slower than before, but it was much easier to open the door. She climbed out of the pod and looked around at her surroundings.  There were some small buildings dotted around the area, and a large building closest to her. towards the middle of the area there was a large satellite  antenna with blinking red lights going down to the ground. She walked up to a monitor that was facing the antenna and hit the screen. It lite up with a map and a radar that flashed out into nothing.</p>
<p>"Not sure what this is for, so I'll just walk away." She backed away and headed towards the closest building. It was the biggest one out of the others and opened with ease. Once the door was closed, she swiped her tool to start draining the room. </p>
<p>The next door opened and Reily closed her eyes at what was inside.</p>
<p>The first thing she saw was a puddle of blood in the middle of the room. She sighed and walked into the room. </p>
<p>"Are you kidding me!" She looked down at the ground. In the middle of the puddle, was two eyes. With the blood vessels and veins intact with the actual eyeball. "That is awful." She looked around the room and just took it all in.</p>
<p>There was blooded notes on the wall and blood splatters all around. "What the hell happened in here?" She went up to the wall on her left and read the note.</p>
<p>"The light is hurting my eyes. He's telling me I don't need this vitreous flesh inside my skull to see salvation. I will gladly remove them. Stop them from obfuscating this divine mission." </p>
<p>"Jesus, who could rip out their own eyes?" She looked towards the desk and saw the computer screen was smashed and papers were tossed around. Past the desk was a set of lockers, the last one had blood dripping out of the sides. She was about to walk past the desk when a note stuck out. It was written in blood, she refused to pick it up.</p>
<p>'It's exciting to watch WAU claim Delta. Half a year ago I'd be worried. I'd have Goya and Wan clean the black blood from the machinery. Now it's crusty surfaces seem to complement, even outshine what Delta was."</p>
<p>"Whoever wrote these notes must have gone insane from something. Maybe being alone with the WAU for too long?" She stepped towards the note by the lockers.</p>
<p>"My reflection in the black blood of our Warden whispers. I need to save them from this hell. Let them sleep. Lock them in the lucid dreams I've seen."</p>
<p>"I think it's time for me to leave." She backed out of the room slowly and watched the lockers, fearful that something might come out. She swiped her Omnitool on the touch pad again and the door locked. She finally sighed and felt the water level rising around her. "This WAU stuff is serious, I really need to find out more about it or ask Jack." She walked out of the building and scanned the area again. Something she missed before was a archway leading to what looked like a platform. She walked towards it and noticed another panel on the side. She went up to it and hit the screen.</p>
<p>It showed a map, it had Theta and Delta marked off along with dotted lines showing the path. </p>
<p>"Wait, this is for a zeppelin! I just need to get it here then we could ride that to Theta." She studied the map and found the one out of three zeppelins that worked. She clicked on the zeppelin but was met with a blinking message. </p>
<p>NO CONNECTION FOUND.</p>
<p>"Shit fine then." She clicked on other pages until she gave up and went back to the map. She looked at it for a bit then turned around and looked at the antenna. "Possibly?"</p>
<p>She ran to the monitor and clicked the screen. The same ID numbers popped up and allowed her to hit them.</p>
<p>"There we go, just have to set up a connection then it should show up here." She entered in the number and watched the antenna  turn towards that direction. She went back to the zeppelin screen and clicked on the zeppelin again. A new message flashed on the screen that gave Reily hope.</p>
<p>ZEPPELIN ON ROUTE</p>
<p>"Now just have to wait for this to show up. Then we are set for Theta." She waited by the entrance and felt excited when floating lights broke through the dense water and headed towards her. The zeppelin in all it's glory appeared over the platform and landed gently down. Reily walked up and checked around the area. A control panel was at the front, with a place for an Omnitool.</p>
<p>She set the tool down while Jack's voice broke through first.</p>
<p>"Reily! We're going down! Oh, wait, we're fine. We ended up at Delta and on a zeppelin! How did you manage that?"</p>
<p>"Hey now, I can't give out all my secrets!" She put her hands on her hips and sassed at the screen. It was nice to talk to him again, she was starting to miss him when she went out adventuring. </p>
<p>"That's a good point. Let's get to Theta!" Jack laughed as the zeppelin's lights turned back on and a fence blocked them in. Reily sat down for once in the chair and planned to enjoy this trip.</p>
<p>"So, what is at Theta that's so important for us?"</p>
<p>"Well, the ARK is at the TAU station right?" </p>
<p>"Right." She answered back.</p>
<p>"Well, TAU is at the bottom of the ocean. Like the very bottom, and you can't go down there unless you have a power suit."</p>
<p>"So, we're getting me a power suit?"</p>
<p>"Hopefully not, a vehicle would be better and easier for both of us to get down there."</p>
<p>"And let me guess."</p>
<p>"It's at Theta." Jack finished her sentence. Even in the short amount of time they had known each other, they were starting to become friends. Reily laughed.</p>
<p>"Alright so we get in and drive out and into the abyss?"</p>
<p>"Well, I wish it would be that easy. We need to get into Theta, find the DUNBAT, make sure that it's working right, then we can head down."</p>
<p>"Alright, I hope it's that easy." Jack audible smirked. If Reily could smile, this would be the best time too. The cruised on for a while before a faint glow caught Reily's attention.</p>
<p>"Is that?"</p>
<p>"Yupp, welcome to Theta. This is where I worked mostly." Reily stood up and looked down at the building.</p>
<p>"It's huge."</p>
<p>"Just wait till you see Omnicron. That place is even bigger." Jack answered her. The zeppelin started to descend down before softly hitting the landing platform.  </p>
<p>"Alright, I will talk to you in Theta." Jack called out to Reily before ejecting the Omnitool himself. Reily went up and grabbed her tool before heading down towards the large building. </p>
<p>She pushed the button next to the hatch and hit it. The door swings open, this part is almost a routine for her now. She walks in, shuts the door, and drains the entrance room. </p>
<p>"Hello theta."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. THETA</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The large doors open slowly showing a huge chamber. There was huge pipes all around the platform that Reily stood on, she noticed the touch pad and swiped the tool to start draining. Flashing lights and an alarm was sounding, but Reily barely noticed. She was so used to this already, the sound of the water leaving the room, the doors clicking open or closed. It was hard to imagine that yesterday she was at her apartment with Sam. </p>
<p>"Damn, I miss that bitch." She smiled to herself and waited for the next large door to open. Gears in the door started to spin and the room rumbled while the large steel door slid open. The next area was a huge empty room with stairs going to other doors on the sides. Right in front of her was another large door that was slightly opened on the bottom. Reily stepped into the middle of the room and looked around. There was two doors on her left that were locked, another large door to her right, and what appeared to be a small office next to that door. The other doors were ether locked or sealed off, but there was a window for the small office on her right. She picked up a heavy box and threw it at the window. The glass shattered and fell inside the office, Reily carefully climbed through the window and stood in the office. </p>
<p>There was some computers at the back of the room and filling cabinets dotted around, but better yet was the control panel in front of the large windows to the side. Reily walked up and set the Omnitool into the slot and watched the screens spark to life. Jack's smiling face appeared and she felt herself relax again.</p>
<p>"Finally! Theta!" </p>
<p>"Sorry that I'm slow, Mr. impatient." She sassed back at the man, who chuckled at her.</p>
<p>"You know I didn't mean it like that. You know, I'm surprised how well your handling this. Keeping up with sass and jokes."</p>
<p>"What else can I do, roll over and wait for death? Or just be miserable the whole time I'm here. Nope, I'm not that type of girl. I'll be a smartass till my last breath." Jack laughed again and agreed with what she said. </p>
<p>"Well, I'm glad I'm not having to babysit you. I would if I had to, but I'm glad you can keep your sprits high in this shit hole." She chuckled and looked around the room.</p>
<p>"So, where is this DUNBAT we need?"</p>
<p>"Hold on." Jack was talking to himself in a hushed whisper as he fidgeted with the controls. "Alright, feast your eyes on the DUNBAT!" On the other side of the window, lights flared on and showed off the crazy looking submarine. It had extended arms with pinchers to pick up objects on the front, while the glass front almost looked like big eyes. Reily took a step back, feeling like it would come to life at any moment. </p>
<p>"What's wrong? It's safe see?" Jack asked with concern. </p>
<p>"See what? Did you do something?"</p>
<p>"Wait, it didn't move? Oh, shit. Someone put it in quarantine. Why would they?"</p>
<p>"Don't ask me, but can we fix that? If we need it, I'll do whatever we need to get it working."</p>
<p>"We need the code from someone who worked security. They were the only ones who could do this. Something must have happened here to cause this." Jack sounded worried.</p>
<p>"What's going on with you? You didn't sound as worried at the other places."</p>
<p>"Well, Reily, this is where I worked and lived. Everyone here was my friend, I would hate for something to have happened to them." Reily understood how he felt, the only difference is that she knows what happened to her friends.</p>
<p>She was hoping that they all passed away before the meteor hit, so they didn't die scared. It was a grim thought, but it gave her an odd feeling of comfort, knowing that they all might have lived their lives out to an old age and lived happily. She wanted to save that in humanity, that means getting the ARK to safety.</p>
<p>"Anyways, sorry for that. I'll unlock all the doors for you so you can move around the facility easily. I'm also hooked up to the intercom, so we can keep talking and I can help you find what we need."</p>
<p>"Hopefully it's just on a piece of paper."</p>
<p>"Doubt that, we might have to ask someone. I'll explain better when we get to it."  She stared at the screen in complete confusion. "I will explain, but for now let's start looking."</p>
<p>Reily walked towards the window until a ding from the door caught her attention. </p>
<p>"I unlocked everything remember?"</p>
<p>"Maybe I like going through the window. I'm offended that you would assume that I wanted to use the door."</p>
<p>"I'm so sorry miss, allow me to relock this door so you can only use the window." The door dinged again and was locked. Reily nodded her head and climbed through the window. She laughed at herself again, how was she so calm during this?</p>
<p>It wasn't like her life was bad before. She had great friends, happy family, and a decent future for herself. So why was she so ok with the world ending, being a robot, and just this crazy place. She walked towards the other side and picked the closest door first. She walked along the ramp and swipped over the touch pad letting the door slid by. </p>
<p>Was she losing her mind? She could barely stand up to a bully back in high school, now she was fighting off these monsters and robots. Nothing changed before she woke up here, she just adapted to this place. She walked down the hallway and turned towards a darken hallway with a door. She opened the door and it lead to a living room area with a table, kitchen, and entertainment area. There was three branching hallways filled with doors with names by them.</p>
<p>"Living areas." She muttered to herself. She stopped at the entrance of one of the halls and figured she should ask Jack some things.</p>
<p>"Hey, Jack?"</p>
<p>"What's up?"</p>
<p>"Why do you think that I'm so calm about this?"</p>
<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
<p>She paused for a second to collect her thoughts. "Well, back in high school, I wouldn't have stood up to a bully. Now I'm fighting off these WAU monsters and I feel fine. Did something happen to me from the scan? Am I not who I was before?"</p>
<p>"Think of it as a copy of yourself. You're still Reily Dhar from Ohio 2018. The scan was just that, a scan of how your brain is wired. It was as harmless as a picture. We can't corrupt those scans, at least no one here had a reason too. Have you thought about going through the shock of everything changed you?"</p>
<p>Reily leaned against the wall and stared down the lit hallway. "Shock?"</p>
<p>"You suddenly woke up almost a century in the future, you realized that you're a robot, and you're alone. That would change anyone, even the most down to earth person would have some reaction to this change."</p>
<p>"I'm not alone though. I have you." She whispered.</p>
<p>"To be fair, I mean another person there. I'm just a talking chip in a computer."</p>
<p>"But you were a person before that."</p>
<p>"Well, yes. I was scanned early in the project, which is why I don't know much about what could have happened to everyone."</p>
<p>"Am I losing my mind Jack?"</p>
<p>"If you are losing your mind, then I have been insane for years."</p>
<p>She felt a wave of comfort wash over her. "I'll always be here to talk with you so you aren't completely alone. At the first sign of worry for your sanity, I will let you know alright?"</p>
<p>"Sounds good." She walked up to the first door. "Guy Conrad?"</p>
<p>"Is that the first room?"</p>
<p>She opened the door and hit the lights. The room was pretty empty besides a couple of pictures on the wall and some tools laid over the desk. "Yup, did you know him well?"</p>
<p>"Not really. He worked with the technicians mostly." </p>
<p>"So not who we need to find?"</p>
<p>"Strike one." Jack called out over the intercom. </p>
<p>Reily left the room and went to the next one on her right. "Catherine Chun."</p>
<p>"Now that is a name I know."</p>
<p>Reily went into her room and noticed all the little toys and stuffed animals on the bed and shelves. "Was she a child at heart?"</p>
<p>"She was quiet, kept to herself and work. The first time I applied to work with her, I knew she was brilliant. Took a couple months before we had any kind of friendship." Reily looked around the desk and checked the drawers. </p>
<p>"Anything about the code or why it was quarantined?"</p>
<p>"Not that I can tell."</p>
<p>"Shit, alright strike two."</p>
<p>"Jack, there is more than three rooms. We're going to strike out before I can even check them all."</p>
<p>"Don't ruin my joke!" Reily shook her head and left Catherine's room.</p>
<p>"Mark Sarang."</p>
<p>"Oh, he was kind of a jerk around here."</p>
<p>"Really?" She opened the door and walked in. The room was pretty cleaned up and empty, except for one note on the desk. Reily picked up the note and started reading. "What the hell?"</p>
<p>"What's up?"</p>
<p>"This Mark guy was telling people to kill themselves after getting scanned. He says that that's the only way to get on the ARK and to ignore what Catherine says. Is that true?"</p>
<p>"No, that's insane! Catherine wouldn't have made it that way. She wanted to protect people and keep the memory of humanity alive after everything was destroyed. This would have crushed her." </p>
<p>"There's another name too. He said to avoid talking to a guy named Sean. Was he another helper with the scans?"</p>
<p>"Uh yeah, he helped with the actual scanning process." Jack stumbled over his words for a moment there. </p>
<p>"You alright there?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, just forgot about working with him."</p>
<p>"Ok? I'm just going to move on." She started to walk out of the room but waited in the doorway.</p>
<p>"What's up?"</p>
<p>"We didn't find anything in that room."</p>
<p>"Oh! Strike three."</p>
<p>"That's better." Reily walked into the next room. </p>
<p>"Sean McLoughlin. Is this the same Sean?"</p>
<p>"Yeah." </p>
<p>She walked into the room and looked around. There was some pictures of nature taped to the walls along with posters from old video games. On a shelf was some gaming consoles and other classic video games.</p>
<p>"This guy sure knows his games. He's got some games that are old from my time!"</p>
<p>"I never got the chance to talk with him much." Jack muttered through the speaker. Reily was preoccupied with looking at all the games. There was some really old ones, some from her time, and new games she didn't recognize. After looking through it all, she went back to her task and checked the desk. She figured the code wouldn't be in there, but she wanted to be sure. After clearing them room she walked out.</p>
<p>"Strike four?"</p>
<p>"Is this even baseball anymore?"</p>
<p>"Just let it happen."</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes and went to the last door. "Brandon Wan."</p>
<p>"He sounds important." Reily hit the button and walked into his room. "Let me check my files to see if he was who I think he was."</p>
<p>While Jack was doing that, Reily started reading through various papers and documents that were scattered on the desk. There was a letter from someone named Alice about how nervous she was for the scan. "Seems like him and Alice were a thing."</p>
<p>"Yes! He was security for Theta! He would defiantly know the code for the DUNBAT. What did you say about Alice?"</p>
<p>"They seemed to be a couple."</p>
<p>"Yeah, I figured they had something going on. Always together and sat a little closer than others would. We can use that to get the code."</p>
<p>"Ok, well I'm not finding any codes here that he wrote down."</p>
<p>"Alright, well lets try the lab. It's down the other hallway back where you first found the door to the living quarters." Reily nodded and headed back to the first hallway she went into. The door for the living room area closed behind her and she went to the right and walked into a room that was between two labs. </p>
<p>The lab on her right had a pilot seat like what she woke up in. There was some computers dotting around the room and another robot facing the seat. On her left was a large office with the same computers and what looked like another room to the side. She went into the office first and checked out the side room. It was full of disk in big turning pillars. Most of the disk looked destroyed, but she did find one that was intact.</p>
<p>"What are these?"</p>
<p>"Those are the scans from everyone here. If you can find one that works, we can hope that Mr. Wan is on it." She grabbed the one she found and went back to the office.</p>
<p>"Just plug it into this computer and I'll boot it up for you." Reily sat down and inserted the disk into the computer. A loading screen popped up before a list of names appeared on the side. She found Brandon Wan and clicked on his name. A second screen popped up asking for environments and if she would like to run the system. </p>
<p>"What do we do now?"</p>
<p>"Well, you said him and Alice were together right?"</p>
<p>"Yeah?"</p>
<p>"I can impersonate her voice so it's someone he knows and is comfortable with."</p>
<p>"Is that the right thing to do here?" She felt dirty thinking of tricking someone like that.</p>
<p>"We need that code. We won't be hurting him, just trying to make this easier for him and us."</p>
<p>"Alright, lets try it." Reily clicked on the Run system button and the system booted to life.</p>
<p>A man appeared on the screen, moving around in the pilot seat from the other room. </p>
<p>"Well, that wasn't so bad. Hey, where did everyone go?"</p>
<p>"Brandon?" She knew it was Jack talking, but it sounded like a women. This was strange indeed.</p>
<p>"Alice? Where are you? I can't see anything."</p>
<p>"It's ok Brandon, I just have to ask you something."</p>
<p>"No, this isn't right. Something went wrong!"</p>
<p>"Please calm down and tell me the code for the DUNBAT."</p>
<p>"No. You're not Alice! What did you do with her!"</p>
<p>The screen darkened and a message flashed on the screen. ABORTING SYSTEM</p>
<p>"What just happened Jack?" Reily was nervous.</p>
<p>"He got too stressed. We need to add to the area to make it more comforting." Reily looked around for a disk or something that would have environments to add to the simulation. "It's in the other lab, take one of the other disk from that desk and add it on from the other computer."</p>
<p>"You alright Jack?"</p>
<p>"It's just we're so close to solving this, I just want to get to that ARK. It also doesn't help to hear how people treated Catherine, she just wanted to help everyone." He slowed down his speech until it was silent again. Reily sighed and turned towards the other desk. She found another disk and went to the other lab's computer.</p>
<p>She updated the disk with some environments. Looking through the options, she downloaded the one labeled LAB. She tossed the disk in the air and snatched it before heading back to Jack.</p>
<p>"This might work better." She inserted the disk. </p>
<p>"Yes! That's perfect. Let's run it again." Reily nodded and hit the button to try again.</p>
<p>"Well, that wasn't so bad." Brandon stretched in the chair on the screen while a women stood next to him. Reily still felt bad bringing back this man's memories for this, but like Jack said we need this. She went back to watching what would happen.</p>
<p>"Hey Brandon." The women smiled at Brandon.</p>
<p>"Alice, that didn't even last as long as the others had said."</p>
<p>"Well, you know how they like to freak you out."</p>
<p>"Yeah, bunch of bastards."</p>
<p>"Hey, I need a favor. What's the security code for quarantine?"</p>
<p>"Why do you need that Alice?"</p>
<p>"Strohmeier just called down asking for it while you were getting scanned. Says it's important."</p>
<p>"Don't worry about it, I'll talk with him." Brandon started to stand up, but Jack stood in front of him to try and keep him in the chair.</p>
<p>"Hey, didn't Sean just tell you to relax for a bit after the scan?"</p>
<p>"Oh yeah, forgot he said that. I guess I do feel hung over."</p>
<p>"Just tell me the code and I'll take it to him. I promise I won't tell anyone."</p>
<p>"Alright, since it's an emergency. It's 1729 over 42, 12 over 407. Got it?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, thanks Brandon. Alright Reily, end the simulation."</p>
<p>"Wait, who's Reily? Alice?" Reily clicked on abort and the screen went dark.</p>
<p>"We got it Reily! We can get out of here and head down to the ARK." Reily stared at the screen that had two options looking at her. One said to shut down the computer, the other said to clear the disk. "Oh, do which ever one you want to. Or you can just walk away, it's your choice." Reily looked between the options, contemplating what to do. She finally decided and clicked on the shut down. She couldn't bring herself to erase their memories.</p>
<p>"What's going to happen to those memories? Are they on the ARK already?" Reily asked while walking back to the DUNBAT.</p>
<p>"I'm not sure to be honest. I wasn't in charge of handling the memories, I just helped Catherine with whatever she needed at that moment."</p>
<p>"Can I also ask what your actual name is?" </p>
<p>"What makes you think that Jack isn't my name?" Reily chuckled softly and turned into the main hallway. </p>
<p>"Well, to be fair you said it was a nickname that the others gave you, but I'm sorry for assuming. Is it your name though?"</p>
<p>"Only good friends get to know my name." </p>
<p>"So, I'm not a good friend?"</p>
<p>"We just met a couple of hours ago! Give me some time." He joked through the speakers. Reily couldn't help but laugh.</p>
<p>"Fair enough. Just don't leave me hanging. I want to know your name before shooting our minds into space." Jack agreed while Reily climbed through the office window again. She walked up to the desk and waited for Jack to put in the code. </p>
<p>"Alright, just a minute longer and tada!" The large door popped and slowly creaked open. "Go ahead and start up the DUNBAT, when you get inside put the Omnitool in it like normal. Then we can head down to the abyess." </p>
<p>Reily nodded and grabbed the Omnitool. She jumped through the window and over the railings. She ran into the now opened door and stared up at the DUNBAT. It looked even weirder when she was closer to it. Reily shook off the odd feeling she had and went to the control panel for the submarine. She plug in a couple of wires and hit some of the buttons that looked important. Through all of this crazy, she still had no idea what she was doing most of the time.</p>
<p>The lights inside the DUNBAT lit up and the engine started up.</p>
<p>"Yes!" Reily exclaimed! Just as she started to celebrate the room started to shake as the DUNBAT jumped around in its restraint's.</p>
<p>"NO NO, CATHERINE YOU DID THIS TO ME! YOU RUINED ME!" The DUNBAT screamed out in agony. Reily hid behind the control panel and watched the DUNBAT finally fall from it's holder and into the ocean below. Reily stared in shook and tried to calm her racing mind.</p>
<p>"Well, shit." She started to head towards the door, but they slammed shut before she could leave. "Well, fuck." Red lights started to flash in the room, suggesting that it was going into an emergency state. She needed to find another way out, luckily she noticed a vent in the wall that was big enough for her to crawl through.  She piled a couple of crates on top of each other and managed to catch the lip of the vent when she jumped. She pulled herself into it and started crawling out. </p>
<p>She followed the tunnel of vents and could hear distant sounds that kept her moving quickly. It sounded like more of the WAU creatures lurking around the halls. </p>
<p>"Hopefully, I don't run into any of them." </p>
<p>She made it to the end of the vent and checked the room before kick the grate off and jumping into the room. She did a quick scan of the room before relaxing and checking out the room.</p>
<p>It was a huge lab full of white boards with writing, desks, and various tools. She made her way to the main computer and set down the Omnitool, preparing for what Jack will say.</p>
<p>"And this is! Not the DUNBAT. Did the WAU get to it?"</p>
<p>"If getting to it means that it freaked out, screamed out about how Catherine did this to it, then falling into the ocean as the WAU taking control."</p>
<p>"Damn it. I was really hoping that would work out." </p>
<p>"It's alright, what's plan B?"</p>
<p>"The shuttle station downstairs is our best bet. Hold on, this is their main lab. This place might have some useful information about the ARK! I could figure out how to get us on the ARK when we launch it."</p>
<p>"That would be nice to read up on." Jack chuckled then went quiet, she assumed he was going over information in the computer. Reily started wondering around the room, reading through notes and memos stuck to the boards. After some time, Jack finally came back.</p>
<p>"Alright, I can get us on the ARK for sure now. How did I not think of this!" </p>
<p>"That's nice to hear, now what's the plan?"</p>
<p>"We have to go to Omnicron for a power suit. Then we can take the Climber into the abyss. You have to have a power suit to be able to survive being at the bottom of the abyss. Omnicron isn't too far, but the shuttle would just be easier."</p>
<p>"Alright, I'll get to the shuttle and talk with you then." Reily picked up her Omnitool again and opened the back doors of the lab. She was met with darkened hallways, small office with limited lights, and the sound of grunting from somewhere. Reily sucked up against the wall and checked around the first corner.</p>
<p>She could see a shadow moving down the hall away from her. She crouched down and sneaked around the nearest office and waited to make sure the coast was cleared. She darted to the next wall and checked around her for any footsteps or sounds coming closer. She kept this up until she could see the glow of the elevator. </p>
<p>"I could make that run to the elevator." She felt determination bubbling at her insides as she checked around her again. She really didn't want to come face to face with another monster, but she really hated this area. She took her chances and ran towards the doors. A distant cry of frustration echoed down the halls, Reily smacked the touch screen to call the elevator. The footsteps were getting louder and so was the screams from the monster.</p>
<p>"Come on! Hurry!" She was screaming at the elevator when the monster appeared behind her. It stopped in the middle of the hall and stared at her. She stayed perfectly still while the creature looked side to side for her. Finally, the doors opened and a small bell chimed that the elevator was there. Reily glanced between the elevator and the creature waiting for her to move. She slowly moved her foot closer to the elevator, the creature reacted by taking a step closer to her. Reily thought over her chances, then flung herself into the elevator. The creature jumped at her but smacked right into the elevator doors. She sat down on the ground trying to rationalize what had just happened.</p>
<p>The elevator goes all the way down to the bottom floor and the doors part open. Reily was still sitting on the ground in shock, but manages to stand up she walks up to the shuttle station and notices that the shuttle in buried in rubble. </p>
<p>Reily took this chance to sit down and go over what had happened in the office.</p>
<p>It was such a small thing in comparison to everything else, but this was truly freaking her out. </p>
<p>The creature that cornered her in front of the elevator.</p>
<p>Didn't have eyes.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. THETA - OMNICRON</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily looked up at the ceiling and went over what she knew about the WAU.</p>
<p>It could bind together electronics and help keep things alive. It also corrupted the minds of some humans apparently. This was the man from Delta, the one who had ripped out his eyes. It was almost creepier knowing who it was this time. Reily sat reflected on her past. Her roommate, family, crush, all of them. She wanted to see them all again. She knew that there was a chance in the ARK to see them again, that is what pushed her to keep going after this goal. Get the ARK to safety, protect your family and friends. </p>
<p>Reily stood up and looked around the destroyed station. She thought back to when she was trapped headed to Lambda and started walking down the tracks. She eventually found the maintaince hatch and went through. </p>
<p>She never thought she would miss being in the ocean. After the crazy things in Theta, the ocean was inviting. Reily knew that she was a ways away from the next destination, but she figured she could make it on foot. She walks past a sign that points her in the right direction. </p>
<p>She continues walking through the ocean, casually reaching out towards small fishes and hiding from the other robots who seems less friendly. She finds a small dirt path that weaves around the ocean floor in a strange way. With nothing else to do but walk, Reily follows the path perfectly, even with it's strange turns. </p>
<p>She starts going over the conversation she witnessed between Alice and Brandon. It was almost like she was there with them, but at the same time not. That was how it felt when she woke up too. She figured it was a prank that Sam had planned, but how wrong she was. Reily laughed at her own mistake and kept heading towards Omnicron. </p>
<p>She was missing Jack already. He was funny, sweet, and the only person who will talk to her besides herself. She really was losing her mind out here. Here she was, missing the man she had just met that same day.  She shook her head and tried talking some sense into herself.</p>
<p>"You barely know this guy. He could be crazy!" Reily laughed at herself and pushed forward. "He couldn't be crazy, he worked on this project. So, he must be super smart. What am I saying, he has to be crazy to work on a project like this." Reily laughed when she noticed a building looming in the shadows.</p>
<p>"Omnicron?" She spoke softly, mentally preparing for what could be in store for her. She hurries to the door and hits the button. The door stays closed and remains closed for the next couple of attempts Reily makes. She looks to the side and sees a panel on the side of the door. </p>
<p>Reily pulled on the panel and exposed a couple of strange looking locks. One was a normal combination lock, the other was a lever with a keypad next to it. Reily started with the combination lock, but it wouldn't move at all. She looked towards the keypad and started punching in any set of numbers she has seen. </p>
<p>After many failed attempts, the keypad screen glows green. </p>
<p>"Finally! Good lord!" She threw down the lever and focused on the combination. "A lot of work to keep one door locked. Would be a shame if someone was to." She tried to open the lock on the first go, but was unsuccessful. She kept trying different orders and numbers until it clicked. "Open it." She finished her joke for herself. A small green button lit up and once pressed the doors started to raise up. </p>
<p>"Cool, last stop before the abyss. Let's make this count." Reily walked through the opened doors and started to drain the room.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. OMNICRON</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily shook off the water from her boots and she turned to look around the entrance area of Omnicron. Immediately, she was taken back by what awaited her inside.</p>
<p>"Well, shit." She walked up to the first of three headless bodies that was slumped on the ground. Dried blood plastered the walls and stuck to the floor as she maneuvered around the bodies. "How could that have happened?" She made it to the open door and looked back at the room. She had a weird feeling about the area and turned to leave before anything happened. </p>
<p>"Power suits, power suits. Where can I find the power suits?" She walked into the next room which was a circular room with two other doors leading off to other areas. In the middle of the room was a glass box with a hospital gurney and some medical equipment. She walked around the room, staring at the box with curiosity and fear. </p>
<p>"Why would this be here?" She went up to touch the box, but could hear a distant voice almost pulling her away from the glass wall. She took a step back towards the door. As she got further away, she could see her reflection clearly. Two, beady, red eyes stared back at her while a body covered in dark material and the WAU with it's faint glow followed her movements. She made herself stand up a little taller, to prove to her reflection that she was going to finish this mission. With a nod at the box, she turned and hurried out of the room.</p>
<p>She walked around carefully, checking rooms for anyone and listening for footsteps. She figured that she was alone but didn't want to give anything the upper hand. She cleared the area, it was mostly filled with offices and one break room with a kitchen. She needed to find an elevator to check the upper floors, so she went back to where she came from. </p>
<p>She went into the first room and froze in the doorway. One of the bodies had been moved, it was on the floor on one side of the room and now was slumped over a bench on the other. </p>
<p>"Relax, maybe your eyes missed it. I mean they are just two little red dots." She quickly went to the other door and hit the button. A chime called back to her while the door slid open to expose the elevator. She jumped in and hit the second floor button. </p>
<p>The ride up was fine, and the doors opened up to the same looking room but without the bodies. She turned and entered the same circular room from downstairs. </p>
<p>"Well, that makes it easy to figure out the lay out of the floors." She tried to stay positive. "I really wish I could talk to Jack at any time." She groaned and went to check the second floor. She tried to look for any signs to point her to where the power suits might be. She was disappointed every turn when there wasn't a sign. When it was cleared she went back to the elevator and went to the last floor.</p>
<p>The doors opened to the third floor and it was the same as the other two. Only difference was in one of the offices off the circular room, there was a long hallway at the end. Reily headed down it and walked through the door to realize she had found the power suit room.</p>
<p>"Yes! Some good news for once!" She practically jumped in celebration at finally finding the room. She hurried down to the computers and threw her Omnitool into the control panel. Jack's face lit up on the screen making Reily feel even happier.</p>
<p>"Jack! I found it!" </p>
<p>"I can see that, nice!" She felt proud of herself.</p>
<p>"So, what's next?" </p>
<p>"Well, we need to see if there even is a power suit here."</p>
<p>"You mean you didn't know if there even one here?"</p>
<p>"I'm hoping there is, but yes." Reily felt her positivity drain out of her at the thought of traveling this far for nothing. "Head to the computer over there and check the power suit's status."</p>
<p>Reily headed to the computer in front of seven doors. She tapped the screen as a map of the whole area came to the screen. Seven tabs on the side popped up with locations and dots matched those coordinates on the map. She checked with all the suits until she found one that was in the room with her. She hit the tab for number five and the door unlocked and slowly opened. </p>
<p>"Found one, or well it was the only one." She looked over at Jack waiting for his next instructions. </p>
<p>"Alright, we just need to make sure that it's working properly then we are good to go." Reily walked over to the suit and tapped on the touch pad next to the chair. An arm came down from the ceiling and grabbed the helmet like in the crane game at a carnival. It twisted the helmet and pulled up. A gush of darkened blood sprayed out while the suit limped in the chair. </p>
<p>"Oh my god, Jack?" Reily called out for help. "There was someone in the suit!" </p>
<p>"That's impossible, unless they were already dead."</p>
<p>"I think they were, the blood is really dark." She leaned over and examined the suit. </p>
<p>"Well, that's not our only issue right now." Reily took a step away and headed back to the computer that Jack was at. </p>
<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
<p>"Well, since there is a body in there we need a new cortex chip so you can see properly. We also need a new battery pack because this one is completely drained. Lastly, we need some structure gel to have the suit functioning correctly so you don't cave under the pressure from the ocean."</p>
<p>"Yeah if we can avoid that, that would be nice."</p>
<p>"I can see that all three of those things are in this building. Each on a different floor but easy enough to find. When you get them all we can figure out how to get you in that suit." </p>
<p>"Alright, sounds good. I'll be back soon."</p>
<p>Reily walked out of the room nervous and confused. How was she going to get into a suit when there's a body inside? She pushed the nerves to the back of her mind and focused on what she needed to do right now. </p>
<p>"May as well start at the bottom first." She walked back to the elevator and hit the one button.</p>
<p>The doors opened and the three bodies were still in their places. Reily was relieved to say the least and jumped to the room's exit. She went down the other hallway and saw a sign for robot repair room.</p>
<p>"That sounds like a cortex chip." She hit the button and the door slid open. A robot was shut down on the table and a touch screen hanging in the middle of the room. She could hear a weird almost static like sound coming from the robot, but it's words were jumbled up and didn't make sense to Reily. She went right to the touch screen and started the process of extracting the chip. </p>
<p>After several failed attempts, a click sounded behind Reily. She turned to see the robot's face opened up to expose the cortex chip she needed. </p>
<p>"There's one done." She held onto the chip and headed out of the room and back to the elevator. </p>
<p>She punched the number two and studied the chip she got. It wasn't a normal chip, it had her eyes and gears to look around. By the time she started to piece together what it was, the elevator doors opened and she pocketed the chip.</p>
<p>Again, she went down the other way she had previously gone and stopped after a bit. The room itself was large compared to the other rooms she was in, but it was for a good reason. The room was full of transformers, generators, and a station for charging battery packs. The lights were off but there was a red glow coming from the ground that gave the room an eerie feel. Reily walked into the area and stayed close to the walls in case there was any unfriendly people around. She walked up to the battery charger station and studied it. </p>
<p>"Just stick the battery into this and in seconds it'll be good as new? Maybe this future isn't all awful." She joked. She reached up, hoping there was already a battery inside but it was empty. "Damn, that would have been too easy." She turned around and saw another light at the end of the room. A sign was on the wall that had a couple words like TTERY SUPPLY, there was some boxes stacked up in the way of her sight. Regardless, she knew what the sign said.</p>
<p>"There we go!" She stood up and walked up to the clearing but froze when she heard something to her left. She glanced slowly to see a WAU creature hunched over next to her. </p>
<p>"Fuck." She whispered. This one had minimal growth on it but it's head was glowing a blinding amount of blue. It had it's arms wrapped around it's chest as if trying to calm itself down. Reily was too scared to even move let alone try to find out what's wrong. She bravely took a step to which the creature's head flickered to a brighter blue. </p>
<p>"Motion sensitive are we?" Reily spoke quietly. She slowed her movements again to try and just reach for the battery. She could see it sitting right there, and it was charged. She could bolt for the elevator from here and probably make it. She kept her eyes on the creature and reached again for the battery, grazing it with her finger tips. The creature growled and twitched, Reily waited for it to relax again before going for her last reach. </p>
<p>"One, two." She prepared herself to run.</p>
<p>"Three!" Reily snatched the battery and ran back towards the door. The creature cried out and bolted after Reily. She dove past the door but could hear the creature closing in on her. She pushed off of the wall and threw herself at the elevator. Gripping onto the battery, she smacked the button and stood with her back on the doors. The creature turned into the room and stopped. </p>
<p>It turned its nasty head in every direction before starting to relax again. </p>
<p>"Must have lost me, that means it can't see. Possibly triggered by sound or vibrations from my movements. Well, I'm sorry for this. It was nice to meet you, whatever your name was. Have a great rest of your life." Reily whispered to the creature when the doors opened behind her. The creature turned it's head and screamed out. Reily jumped backwards and hit the button.</p>
<p>The doors closed as the creature was reaching out to grab her. </p>
<p>"Well, that was terrifying but eventful. That's two down, one left to go." The doors opened on the third and last floor of the building. She looked at the cortex chip and the battery pack. She couldn't help but feel impressed with herself, finding the items and gathering them for this task. Reily leaned against the wall of the elevator and took in a deep breath. </p>
<p>"I really have lost my mind, but why does that have to be a bad thing? I'm braver, more confident, and less anxious than I was back home. Something was bugging her at the back of her mind. Was it because she was a robot, or that everything on the surface is destroyed? She was surrounded by monsters and the only person she could talk to was just a chip on a tool. So much has changed, and she had to change with it. She didn't know how much time has passed since she woke up here. How long has it been since she took that stupid test, worried about how much money she needed if she failed, since she said bye to Sam. If she could cry, now would be the time too. She could feel the emotion of sadness in her head, but her body wouldn't respond to it. She put the items back into her pockets when the doors opened back up. </p>
<p>The third floor looked the same as before. She went the opposite way than she had earlier and walked down the hall. It opened into a bigger lab that had glass containers lining the back wall. She walked through the door and was startled to see a headless body laying on the ground next to her. </p>
<p>"God." She was getting awful vibes from this place. She walked over to the containers and could see a container filled with the same black goo she has seen everywhere. "Must be the structure gel Jack was talking about." She hit the button to open the side door, but nothing happened.</p>
<p>The touch pad sparked and started to smoke. "Ah, fuck." She kicked open the panel below and could see the chip that controlled the case. It had sparks coming off of it. "Must have shorted out." She looked around the room, then noticed another part of the room behind a wall of glass. It had three cases set up with a control panel in the middle of the room facing them. She pushed through the door and looked around at the cases.</p>
<p>There was a robot arm with a laser that was connected on a rail between all three boxes. She looked behind her at the control panel and could see a joystick that must control the arm. The middle box had a tray that was empty, the first one had another chip, and the last one had a dead rat laying in it. She went back to the panel and hit the screen. The arm moved slightly when she started up the system and two buttons glowed next to her. </p>
<p>Dispense gel</p>
<p>Unlock cases.</p>
<p>She hit the button to unlock the cases and a loud click echoed in the room. She went to the first one and examined the chip. It was covered in the black goo and was moving slightly. </p>
<p>"This must be that WAU stuff. This could fix the chip if it does what Jack had told me." She closed the first case and went back for the busted chip. She opened the second case and set the chip in the middle of the tray. </p>
<p>She moved the arm so the laser was hitting right in the middle of the chip and dispensed the gel. A black slime ran out of the nozzle and splashed onto the chip. Almost immediately, the chip stopped smoking and the sparks had stopped. </p>
<p>"Awesome! Now just to grab the gel for the suit and I can head back to." She stopped when she looked back at the case with the rat inside. "I wonder?"</p>
<p>She moved the arm to sit over the rat and dispensed more gel onto it. She ran over to the glass to watch what would happen. For the first few moments, the rat laid there. Then it's back leg twitched. Reily jumped away in disgust but slowly creeped back to the window. The rat was still laying still, but it's front legs were running in place.</p>
<p>"That's insane." She backed away, worried the rat would jump at the window. She grabbed her fixed chip and put it back in the control panel for the first case. She touched the pad and the glass door slid open. She reached in and grabbed the gel.</p>
<p>"That's everything. Now just to head back to Jack." She left the room, but then started to run when she heard something hitting a glass wall. She ran to the other side of the circular room and froze when she entered the office.  The creature from the second floor stood in the middle of the room. She looked to her right and could see the start of the hallway that lead to the power suits and Jack. </p>
<p>"Alright, lets do this chase again." Reily mentally prepared for the coming chase and slowly checked her pockets for the other two items. "Three, two." She closed her eyes and focused on the hallway she would be running down. </p>
<p>"One!" She bolted to the right and entered the long hallway. She could hear the creature scream and it's impending footsteps getting closer. </p>
<p>"Jack!" She screamed out and she could feel a wisp of air on her back shoulder. The creature had taken a swipe at her, but missed. She tumbled into the room and punched the door pad to close it. "Lock it up!" She screamed at Jack as the creature pounded against the door. </p>
<p>"What happened out there!" </p>
<p>"WAU, it's pissed off. Might have been since I blew up that ship."</p>
<p>"I doubt it, it's just an AI gel. it doesn't hold grudges or care about that. Did you find all three items?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, I got it all right here." She walked to the desk and stood in front of the screen so Jack could see that she was holding all three things up. </p>
<p>"Perfect, just add it to the suit and then I'll explain what happens next."</p>
<p>Reily nodded and walked to the headless suit. She set the battery pack into its place on the back of the suit and held the cortex chip awkwardly in her hands.</p>
<p>"Where do I attach this part?"</p>
<p>"The cortex chip? Just place it where the head would be."</p>
<p>"So, in the neck? That's gross." </p>
<p>"It'll be quick and easy." She hesitated before jamming the chip into the neck of the body. </p>
<p>"Gross." She muttered under her breath before opening the structure gel container. "What about this gel stuff?"</p>
<p>"Just dump it all over the body and the suit to make it one." She did as she was told and let the liquid pour over the suit and body. Once she was done the suit closed back up and the helmet was placed back on the body. </p>
<p>"Alright, ready for the tough part? " Jack spoke up after noticing that Reily was done prepping the suit.</p>
<p>"That wasn't the hard part?"</p>
<p>"Well, with the physical work you're done. Now on to the mental work."</p>
<p>"You mean how to get me into the suit?"</p>
<p>"Yes, the easiest way I know how would be to scan you again and move your mind to that new suit."</p>
<p>"Wait, what?" Jack sighed while Reily walked to the screen to stare at his face.</p>
<p>"It'll be just like when you went in for that test scan all those years ago. It'll still be you just as you are still the same Reily from before. There's a pilot seat in the next room you can sit in. I'll manage all the technological stuff from here."</p>
<p>"You sure?"</p>
<p>"Honestly, I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you like that."</p>
<p>"And you said we weren't friends." She joked as she headed to the room with the pilot seat. She opened the door and walked right in, she sat down in the chair and waited for Jack's next instructions. </p>
<p>"We are friends, just haven't gotten around to telling you much about me."</p>
<p>"Well, we can start now. What's your real name?"</p>
<p>"Hey, the scan is ready to start!"</p>
<p>Reily laughed to herself while the helmet lowered over her eyes. The same blinding light shined in her eyes before darkness swallowed her. </p>
<p>She blinked a couple of times to adjust to the change of lighting and looked around. </p>
<p>"Jack?" She was scared that it had happened again. Waking up years in the future, alone. </p>
<p>"It worked!" She sighed when she heard his voice. </p>
<p>"Are you sure it worked Jack?" She froze in her new seat. She didn't say that, but it sounded just like her.</p>
<p>"Who was that?"</p>
<p>She stood up and looked down at her hands. The power suit covered her whole body and felt heavier than the other suit she wore. She stepped out of the storage room and looked towards the pilot seat. </p>
<p>There she was. Her old self, wondering what had happened. Her red eyes were dimmed. </p>
<p>"Jack? Who is that?" She walked up slowly to the body in the chair.</p>
<p>"It's you, a different version of you."</p>
<p>"But how does that make sense? Two versions of me?" Reily was starting to worry about what she had agreed to.</p>
<p>"It's not like that. Look, it's like flipping a coin, the coin is still the same regardless of which side lands face up. You moved to the new body but the original version of you remains in that other body. This is what happened back in 2018, that version of you lived on while you woke up here. You got the good end of the coin toss.</p>
<p>"What will happen to her?"</p>
<p>"She will wake up soon enough in this place."</p>
<p>"No, if what you said was true then she will feel lost. She didn't finish her goal and she would throw herself into that abyss and try to follow us. Ether that or she will go crazy being alone in this place."</p>
<p>"Well, the only thing I can do is put a sleep button that will slowly drain her batteries so she can't wake up again." She couldn't believe what he said. Just kill this version of herself! Could she do that? She stood up and turned to look down the hall at the computers. </p>
<p>"She will go crazy with loneliness and guilt. I can't bear to leave someone like that, let only someone just like me." She looked back down at the body and moved to the control panel.</p>
<p>"If this is what you need to do, then I have it all ready for you. I'm going to leave, I'll talk with you at the climber." She could hear the Omnitool pop out of it's spot and the screens went to black. She stared into her face and examined as much as she could before she would leave. </p>
<p>She hit the button and noticed that it had started to work. </p>
<p>"I'm sorry for this. Honestly, I am. I have to finish this, we will get on that ARK and save humanity." She patted it's shoulder once before leaving the room. There was a huge hatch that lead to an airlock. </p>
<p>"Alright, Jack. We are headed down."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. OMNICRON - TAU</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily pushed on the hatch once the air lock was filled with water. She walked out onto a metal walkway and followed it until she could see the climber below her. She went down the small ladder and landed inside the huge elevator. </p>
<p>She walked to the large computer and set her Omnitool in it's place. The screen lit up and she could see Jack's face glowing.</p>
<p>"We are finally making it." He sounded so proud and relieved to be this far. </p>
<p>"We're going to make it. No worries about that!" Reily said excitedly. She was terrified of the deep ocean, but that meant that they were almost done. She would be free on the ARK soon enough. </p>
<p>"Take a seat and I'll start our descent down." She sat down in the chair and pulled down the safety bar.  Once she was safe, the climber shook and started to drop. "It's going to be a while before we hit the bottom."</p>
<p>"So, plenty of time to get to know each other better!"</p>
<p>"You really want to know my name?"</p>
<p>"Yes!"</p>
<p>"How about this, I'll tell you my name when we are about to shoot off the ARK."</p>
<p>"That'll be forever from now."</p>
<p>"It wont be if we find the ARK and hurry to PHI!"</p>
<p>"Fair enough. Tell me about your self then."</p>
<p>"I mean, I grew up a normal kid. I played video games, whatever I could find. I had a love of building things and figuring how it works, and that's about it."</p>
<p>"No friends or anything like that?"</p>
<p>"I mean, I had friends at work. I usually didn't have time to just relax and hang out. I kept to myself and my work."</p>
<p>"Sounds boring."</p>
<p>"It wasn't to boring. I also kept to myself because I wasn't as social as everyone else. So it was fine for me."</p>
<p> "You know, I was the same back at home. I had Sam, my best friend. Other than her and a couple of close family members, I was alone. I was in school and was nice to everyone, but I enjoyed being at home with Netflix and books."</p>
<p>"See, we're alike!" Jack laughed. Reily couldn't help but laugh along with him. Even though their time was drawing to a close, she felt closer to him. </p>
<p>"Well, we are about half way down." Reily was trying to not look around too much. She would get too nervous about being this deep underwater. </p>
<p>"Nice, so what should I expect to see down here?"</p>
<p>"Your usual deep ocean creatures. I'm just hoping the WAU didn't infect any of the creatures down here. That would be troublesome." </p>
<p>"How so?"</p>
<p>"Think of larger, creepier, and all around more aggressive animals. They hate the light so just stick close to those and they should stay away." Reily sucked up against the chair in fear. Of course it would end like this. "You alright?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, sure. I'll make it." She smiled at the screen, but was still terrified in her head. Suddenly, the climber shook and stopped. The lights flickered as a current pushed against the bars making the climber sway slightly. "What happened!"</p>
<p>"Power must have shorted out, hang on. I'm going to try and fix it." The large screen flickered off making Reily nervous. She didn't want to be alone, she couldn't be alone in the middle of the ocean.</p>
<p>"There, I think I" Jack started to speak but then the climber dropped. Reily clung on to the safety bar that was keeping her in her seat. The water rushed past her at such speeds that it felt like her helmet would fly off. She screamed out for help, she could barely hear Jack talking over the sound of rushing water. </p>
<p>As fast as it happened, the climber caught on to the rope again and caused Reily to hit her head against the seat. She was knocked out but she could hear Jack yelling something.</p>
<p>By the time Reily stirred awake, she noticed they were stopped again.</p>
<p>"Reily! Please wake up!" Jack sounded worried. </p>
<p>"What?" She could barely hear herself talking.</p>
<p>"Thank god! I was worried that you were gone!" He sounded relieved, but not relaxed. </p>
<p>"What even happened?" She tried to look around, but her vision was blurry still. </p>
<p>"The brake was tripped when we just stopped, so I tried to take it off. Turned out that it was the emergency brake, so we free fell a couple thousand feet until I was able to get the brakes back on."</p>
<p>"Nice job there." </p>
<p>"I stopped us right before we crashed on the ground. You're welcome." Reily's vision was clearing up and she could see the small light poles lining a walk way into the dark waters. The current was so strong down here, it was almost like a storm. "This is it, just follow the blue lights and they will lead you to TAU."</p>
<p>"Alright, I'll do my best." She was exhausted, she needed to get inside to calm down fully from that insane drop. It was worse than anything she had experienced at a theme park. She pulled on the safety bar that did save her life and stood up. She went up to the screen and stared up at Jack.</p>
<p>"You alright?" She didn't get the chance to ask Jack if he was alright after all that.</p>
<p>"Yeah, I can't feel anything. I was more worried for you."</p>
<p>"Thanks. Well, I'll talk to you in TAU." She smirked at the screen. She used her humor to cover up the fact that she was terrified of what was to come. </p>
<p>"Be careful." Jack said gently. She picked up the Omnitool and was swallowed in darkness.</p>
<p>"Alright, TAU. I'm coming for you." She needed to try and be strong for this hike. She pushed open the cage door and stepped out of the climber. She could see a sign by the first blue light on her path.</p>
<p>BLUE GOES TO TAU. RED GOES TO CLIMBER</p>
<p>She looked at the back of the light and saw they were red. </p>
<p>"Clever." She started her walk, keeping close to the lights she bared against the current. A couple of times she almost lost her footing and was swept away, but somehow she would ground her feet into the sand and manage to regain balance. The lights were close together at the start, but halfway into her walk they were getting further apart. Reily started running to the lights and resting by them to try and minimize how long she was in the dark. It got to the point where she thought she felt something behind her while she ran to the next light. By the time she would turn around, it would just be water flowing quickly by. She hugged against the light and stared around her, too scared to keep moving.</p>
<p>"Jack, if only you were here to call me lazy or whatever." She spoke to herself. At that moment, a monstrous roar came behind her and she turned in time to see a giant mutated fish swimming past her. It was covered in the WAU and looked aggressive. She had to get to TAU, to indoors where she would be safe. She took a deep breath and bolted for the next light. The large fish turned around on her left and headed right for her. She slide on the ground against the light and just missed the bottom lip of the fish. In the distance, she could see faint lights dotting above the path.</p>
<p>"TAU!" She exclaimed. Seeing the building gave her an adrenalin push that sent her running to the next three lights. The fish stayed close and would consistently swim past Reily when she would get close to the light. She kept dodging until she was just two lights away from the main spotlights of the base. The fish swam over her and turned towards the building. It swam around it just outside the spot lights and faced Reily again. She knew she could make it if she ducked down and sprinted to the door. She collected herself before running towards TAU.</p>
<p>The fish darted towards her with horrifying speeds. Reily slipped on a rock and fell down, which ended up being perfect for the fish had attacked from behind her and tried to catch her again. She stared up at the belly of the beast and felt her nerves growing quickly. </p>
<p>"I'm almost there, come on!" She yelled at herself and pushed herself off the ground. She ran behind the fish and made it to the hatch controls. </p>
<p>She punched the large button and turned around in time to see the fish patrolling around the edge of the light. </p>
<p>"Better luck next time!" She yelled out gleefully. The hatch behind her opened slowly and Reily stepped inside the base, shutting out the awful world outside. She drained the air lock and opened the next door that lead to the base main floor. </p>
<p>"Finally, safe for the moment."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. TAU</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily looked down the very narrow hall and started exploring around the base. She walked past small storage rooms that were full of files and tablets with information regarding the base and the chaos of the WAU. Reily flipped through the files before heading further down the hall. She almost walked past a room that looked oddly familiar. It was another power suit bay like the one back in Omnicron. There was a smaller screen for the controls and locations of the suits.</p>
<p>Reily went up to the screen and realized that there was one suit activated outside somewhere.</p>
<p>"Creepy." She muttered before leaving the room. Reily kept going till she found a huge round hatch door that lead to the rest of the base she assumed. She picked up her tool and swiped at the touch pad. The gears in the door spun one by one into place before slowly opening to reveal another hall way. It looked the same as the other area, but instead of storage rooms it was labs. Reily examined what she could understand from the labs before going further into the base. </p>
<p>She walked into another lab when a distant siren went off. She froze in the hallway, dreading what she could have set off. That dread turned to fear when the intercom next to her made an announcement. </p>
<p>CAUTION, AIRLOCK PREASURIZING. STAND CLEAR.</p>
<p>"How is that possible?" She was torn between investigating the intruder, or hiding. She tried to hurry further into the base, while avoiding the air lock. She rounded corners, hurried through offices and labs, until she found the next large hatch door. She swiped the touch pad again and the door groaned as the gears turned. She was holding her breath, worried that someone or something would turn the corner next to her. </p>
<p>"Come on, hurry up." Then she heard it. </p>
<p>Footsteps. </p>
<p>She calmly glanced over her shoulders and could see the outline of the intruder. </p>
<p>It was the active power suit, but it wasn't a friendly inside. The helmet was busted in the front and small tentacles of WAU dangled from it's face. The suit had black goo running out of the seams and smaller tentacles sticking out from his joints. It lumbered down the hall towards her, in an unsettling limp. Reily looked at the door and grunted when she realized it was only half way done.</p>
<p>"Shit." She yelled before bolting down the hall, away from both her freedom and the creature. The creature roared behind her and chased after her. She darted into the labs and tossed desk behind her to try and slow down the beast. It rampaged through all the debris and kept charging. She looped back to the door and could see that it was opening down the hall. </p>
<p>"Just have to make it!" She gasped to herself and pushed to run that extra bit faster. She flew through the open door and caught sight of a ladder heading up to the next floor. She prayed the creature didn't know how to climb and jumped high up the ladder. The creature cried out from the ground and reached for her legs, but she managed to scramble up and get out of it's grasp. Once she made it up the ladder, she ran into the next room and locked the door behind her. She sank down to the floor to relax her mind before continuing. </p>
<p>"It feels like forever since I talked to Jack. I wonder why there isn't any places for my Omnitool here." She wondered out loud. She took the chance to check around her and noticed that she was in the living quarters. In the large round room had a large table with some couches and a tv hooked up on the wall. There were a couple rooms with beds inside, but there were three doors that seemed to hold a different task. One was an official office, but the door was locked. She tried at the office door for some time before going through the rooms. A couple of the rooms had bodies lying in beds, while others was full of random papers and reports. She took the time to check on everything before turning her attention to the last two doors.</p>
<p>"Infirmary or Dispatch. Let's see if anything wants to chat." She half joked, but also was nervous if someone replied. She opened the door to a very small and cluttered office that had one desk, but was surrounded with cabinets full of files. She shuffled towards the desk and taps on the computer a couple of times before the screen dimly lights up. The screen is fuzzy and bouncing around, but it's still working. She taps on Upsilon, the phone rings from the speakers for a while before she gives up. She tries Lambda, Theta, Delta, to which they all kept ringing. She sat back in the chair and stared at the blank screen. </p>
<p>"I really am alone here. Wow." The news seemed to hit her harder now than ever before. Why now? She huddled up and looked around what once was someone's work space. </p>
<p>"I just miss Jack. That's all." She sighed it out and relaxed again before leaving the room. She turned to the right and opened the door for the Infirmary. The door opened to a small hallway that ended with another ladder. She climbed up it and unlocked the door. </p>
<p>Reily almost fell back down the ladder in surprise. </p>
<p>Sitting alone in a chair, was a man. A human man, no growth, no crazy aggressive behavior. Just a man, that appeared to be dying. </p>
<p>"What in the fuck?"</p>
<p>"Look, I don't need your help robot. Just move along." That voice was so familiar.</p>
<p>"Jack?"</p>
<p>The man looked up and stared at Reily seriously. "How do you know that name?" He looked like a slightly older version of the Jack she was used too. He was thin and frail, as if the only thing keeping him alive was a machine. He had IVs going into his arms, giving him liquids and nutrients to stay alive. He was also hooked up to a Life Support machine that beeped regularly. Reily entered the room carefully.</p>
<p>"Because you look just like the man that has helped me through this place."</p>
<p>"Huh, well then. At least my scan was useful for something." He laughed, but ended up in a coughing fit. "You're different from the other robots around here." Reily moved closer so he didn't have to speak so loud. </p>
<p>"Yeah, I didn't lose my mind." She joked, this put a sly smile on Jack's face. </p>
<p>"Yeah, Pathos will do that to ya."</p>
<p>"Pathos?"</p>
<p>"That's the company that started up this project. Pathos owns everything that you have seen so far." Reily was astonished that Jack never mentioned them before. Going through her memories, she has seen that name on the top of documents and stamped onto reports. It was on all the computer's background and on some of the buildings themselves. </p>
<p>She went over her thoughts but then a glimmer caught her attention. She turned to the table slightly behind Jack's arm and could see a huge piece of equipment locked to the table. </p>
<p>She could just make out the words on the side of the machine. </p>
<p>ARK</p>
<p>She found it! She just needs to get it out of here and then she can head to the last place!</p>
<p>"Hey, Jack?"</p>
<p>"Oh please, just call me Sean." Reily stared in disbelief. "What?"</p>
<p>"Just like that, you're going to tell me your name! I've been asking all this time!" Sean stared confused at Reily.</p>
<p>"Sorry, but that version of me was a scan I did years ago. Honestly, I wouldn't have been too friendly with someone new back then. Now a days, I don't care too much, not like I have much reason to care right?" He looked sadly at the machine next to him. "Anyways, what was your name?"</p>
<p>"Reily Dhar." Reily moved towards the small bed against the far wall to sit down. There was the table with various medical equipment and a computer. Behind Sean was a small room that looked to be a make shift kitchen and bathroom. He must have locked himself in here when everything went crazy.</p>
<p>"Nice name. It's been so long since I have talked to someone. Almost forgot my manners there for a bit." He laughed weakly. He was different from the scan version that Reily knew, but he was still sarcastic and funny. Reily laughed it off.</p>
<p>"Don't worry about it. I kind of just crashed your place by showing up. So what happened to you?" The question was bugging her, but she wasn't sure if it was appropriate to ask. Sean closed his eyes and revisited that memory.</p>
<p>"When the WAU was getting out of control, we had to hurry and send the ARK off. But then something happened, Catherine ran into the lab and handed me the ARK and told me to lock myself up somewhere until she came for me. She looked scared so of course I did what she said. But I know it's been years now, and I'm lucky I thought to lock up in the Infirmary. I have kept myself alive because of this small room." He looked around the room from his chair. He looked so tired and weak, poor guy.</p>
<p>"Do you know why they didn't send the ARK up?"</p>
<p>"I was finalizing my reports in my room when Catherine ran in, I could hear yelling from behind her. She told me to hurry so nobody saw me with the ARK, and that was it. Hell, if you went into my room I bet my pen is still laying on a half finished paper on my desk." This made Sean smile to himself. </p>
<p>"Well, I'm here to get the ARK to safety."</p>
<p>"I know you are." Sean leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes again. He looked peaceful. "I have been waiting, for years for someone to come in that I could trust to take care of this task. As soon as you spoke to me, I knew you were the one." Reily stared at Sean, she wished she had her face so he could see her smile and the tears in her eyes. This was the man she had grown to know over this whole experience, and he's dying. She couldn't help but feel sadden by this. </p>
<p>"I'm sorry for all of this." She said this without thinking. Sean grunted and sat back up slightly to look at her.</p>
<p>"What do you mean? It was our fault for creating the WAU in the first place. We knew it was falling apart, and yet we kept using it to fix our electronics and robots. We did this ourselves, I'll just be at peace knowing the thing I spent years working on makes it to space. Saving that last shard of humanity will make all of this worth it. It's been hard over the years, sitting here next to it. I tried to find a suit to take it to PHI myself, but as you probably noticed they are all gone." He looked towards the ARK sadly, as if he felt like he disappointed the project. </p>
<p>"But now, you're here. And you have a suit that can make it to PHI with the ARK. You can save the memory of everything humans have done, keep the dream alive inside this ARK." He smiled at Reily and she felt calm and relaxed. It was nice to see his face change between moods, unlike always staring at the screen profile picture of his. </p>
<p>"Sean?" He looked up and waited for her question. "What do I tell the scan version of you? He said that he would tell me his name when we get to the launch site. Do you want me to tell him that I talked to you or just act like this never happened?" Sean thought over what he would want to know back then.</p>
<p>"I would appreciate knowing what happened to me in the future, but I might get frustrated with what happened. When I did that scan, I was hopefully in the project. It would be disappointing to find out that I failed in securing the ARK's safety." Reily nodded and stood up, she needed to get moving to PHI with the ARK. </p>
<p>"Before you go, Reily." Sean stopped her before she walked towards the ARK. "Can you do me a last favor?" </p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"Please, let me pass away. I have been trapped in this god forsaken room for years, stuck in this chair just waiting for someone to take the ARK. I'm tired Reily, I want to go to sleep." He smiled up at her, but she felt a wave of grief wash over her. </p>
<p>"But, Sean." </p>
<p>"Look, I understand that you know me pretty well and hell we might even be friends. That version of me is still with you, that scan will guide you out of this and take the ARK to saftey. But, I'm tired Reily. I just want to leave this place and go somewhere better than this." Reily hesitated before walking closer to Sean. "Please, just let me drift off to sleep for the last time."</p>
<p>"Sean." She could feel the emotion of grief, but couldn't feel the physical feelings. </p>
<p>"I'm exhausted, It's time for me to leave this project in your hands. You can do this." He smiled up at her and coughed slightly. She bowed her head before muttered her answer.</p>
<p>"Alright, if this is what you want."</p>
<p>"It's what I need." His voice was velvety and calming. She stood up and moved closer to the machine. She held her hand over the power button and hesitated. "It's ok." She turned to stare at him. He had a genuine smile on his face and watched carefully as she slowly hit the button. The beeping stopped and the lights dimmed to nothing. His smile wavered and his eyes watered up a little.</p>
<p>"Huh, you'd think I would be more prepared for this moment. I've been thinking about this for so long, and here I am getting choked up on it." He sighed and let his head fall back onto the head rest. "Stay with me, just for a few minutes longer." He tried to raise his hand towards Reily, but his strength was already disappearing. </p>
<p>"Sean, tell me something that makes you happy." He closed his eyes and let the tears fall down his cheeks. </p>
<p>"When I was a kid, I was the only one at school that liked old video games. Everyone else thought I was a weird kid, playing games from decades ago. They had their agentive reality and the newest in VR gameplay. I loved how a simple game could pull me into it's world without me having to use that fancy new gear to literally be in the game. I wasted so much time playing these games, and I'm so glad I did. I fell in love with how the technology worked and started tinkering with the consoles. If it wasn't for those simple but complex games, I wouldn't have worked here. I would have died years ago on the surface when that damned meteor hit. I wouldn't have been apart of this amazing project that is going to save our legacy. I'll take dying here rather than up on the surface with nothing." He went into a coughing fit before leaning back. Reily slowly reached out and held his hand, instantly his thumb rubbed into my palm. Sean smiled and fully relaxed in the chair. His breathing was slowing down and his hand was moving slower.</p>
<p>"I wish I could have said goodbye to my family before the meteor came. They didn't understand this place, we left with bad thoughts swirling around. I should have fixed it."</p>
<p>"It's alright now, you're at peace Sean." Reily spoke up gently. She didn't want his last thoughts to be about regret.</p>
<p>"Yeah, you're right." He grabbed her thumb tightly. "Thank you, Reily."</p>
<p>"We just met, what could I have done to make you happy?"</p>
<p>"You stayed with me. I know that I can trust you. Hell, we might have even been great friends." He choked up on his last words while his grip loosened on her thumb. </p>
<p>"I wouldn't have left you alone in this place. That is my privilage." She spoke as warmly and soothing as she could. Sean smiled before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. </p>
<p>"Thank you." She could hear his heart beat now. It was slowing down.</p>
<p>Then, it was silent. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. TAU - PHI</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Reily hit the touch pad and the ARK was connected to a railing system to send it to PHI, at least that's what she was guessing. She didn't really care much at this point. Once the ARK was connected and safe, she hit the button to fill the airlock with water so she could leave. </p>
<p>Once Sean was gone, she grabbed the ARK and headed back down the ladder. It was hard for her to leave him there, but she knew she had the scan waiting for her. She found a small service elevator in the living area and sent it down to the transportation area. </p>
<p>She found the ladders going down and met back up with the ARK two stories lower. She went into the room with the railing and small table and figured out that it was made just to move the ARK to PHI. Now, the room was filling up with water, and she was ready to head to PHI. To finish this for good.</p>
<p>The large door swung open and immediately the ARK started moving like a small subway. This new area was enclosed, most likely to keep the ARK and the team safe while moving. Reily didn't care much about keeping up with the ARK, she just needed to walk alone and think over what had happened. Even if that was the first time she met him, he was still a friend and now he was dead. </p>
<p>Her Omnitool started to fall out of her pocket suddenly and Reily turned to catch it. She was so used to being in the water that she forgot it wouldn't be damaged from falling. She caught it and for a moment stared at it.</p>
<p>This tool was the greatest thing she had. Her old life was gone and over. </p>
<p>But this tool was grim reminder of all that she has overcome and what world she lives in now. She gripped the tool closely before putting it away and following the tunnel. She could see the little light on the ARK blinking ahead.</p>
<p>"At least that's still heading the right way." She muttered. </p>
<p>Minutes passed by and her thoughts were still circling around Sean. She finally hit her head and yelled in frustration. </p>
<p>"Come on! You have to buck up and move on! He was already dead when you found him!" That realization snapped within her mind. It was true, he was dead before she found him. "You made him happy in his last moments breathing. That should make you happy." She kept yelling at herself. This was a trick she used to do back at home. When her thoughts were racing too much, she had to snap herself out of the loop. Yelling was the best way to get through the smog in her head.</p>
<p>"You have to finish this! With your head held up high, you can do this." She could almost hear her father speaking those words to her. Her father was a big motivator for her, he was the reason she went to collage. She struggled with school and finishing projects or anything for that matter. Her father was always there to give her the boost she needed to keep moving and accomplish anything. </p>
<p>"I know dad, I have to finish this. With my head held up high and my feet grounded beneath me." She looked up and could see a door opening in the distance. The blinking light on the ARK disappeared behind the door. </p>
<p>"I'm going to make you proud dad." She promised herself. Soon enough, she was running full sprint towards PHI.</p>
<p>This was it, her whole journey leading to this.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. PHI</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>WARNING SUICIDE WARNING</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The large doors opened again so Reily could sneak inside. She stood next to the ARK and hit the touch pad to drain out the room.</p>
<p>"Finally. We made it Sean." She smiled looking at the ARK. This was the first time she has been able to look at the ARK. It was beautiful, it was bright orange with blue bars to form almost a cage around it to keep it safe. She could see inside of it, but she had no idea what any of it was. She just knew it was almost off this cursed planet. </p>
<p>Once the room was drained, she opened the door and stepped into the most normal looking room she has seen. The WAU hadn't made it here yet, the walls where intact, there wasn't any black goo dripping from the ceiling. It was almost normal looking. She walked down the hall and checked in the smaller rooms that extended beyond the hall. Most of the doors were locked, or they were just tiny offices. Once she made it to the end of the hallway, she entered into a large lab. To her right was a computer station that had a connection for an Omnitool.</p>
<p>She practically ran to it and forced the tool to connect.</p>
<p>"Hey!"</p>
<p>"Jack! God, I didn't think I'd miss you."</p>
<p>"Has it been a while? Wait, this isn't TAU. This place is."</p>
<p>"Yeah, it's PHI. I already have the ARK here too."</p>
<p>"Damn! You are amazing I swear." If she could just hug the computer she would. "So how did you find the ARK?"</p>
<p>"Well, that would be a long story."</p>
<p>"We do have some time. I'll make sure the bullet is ready for the ARK and then we just have to get to the pilot seat and shoot it off!" He was so excited for this. Reily couldn't even lie, she was relieved to have finally made it here.</p>
<p>"If you really want to know, I can tell you once we are ready to shoot it off." Jack groaned but agreed. He started going through the computer to set up the ARK and check that everything was functional. While he was busy with that, Reily decided to explore around the lab.</p>
<p>She looked at a white board and caught a glimpse of a picture that fell to the ground. She picked it up and sighed. It was a picture of the team who worked on the ARK. And on the end was Sean, standing next to a tall women. The crew had signed their names, and the women was Catherine. Reily set the picture down next to the board and kept walking around. There was various papers and tools laid around but otherwise, nothing to interesting that stuck out to Reily. </p>
<p>"Alright, everything appears to be working perfectly. I don't understand why they didn't shoot it off?"</p>
<p>"Well, I might have the answer. But, I'm not certain."</p>
<p>"I did what you had asked, so keep up your end of the deal." Sean talked as if he was a child that just sat down on the ground waiting for the story to start. She wouldn't have been surprised if he would have done that if he was standing here with her. </p>
<p>"Alright, well. TAU sucks about as much as THETA, in the area of WAU creatures. There was one that was in a power suit that chased me around the first floor."</p>
<p>"That sounds awful." Sean replied.</p>
<p>"Yeah, but I made it to the living area and checked the rooms. I didn't find anything until I went into the Infirmary." Reily stopped as Sean's words came back in her mind. He had said that he wasn't sure how this scan version of him would react to hearing about him. Sean deserves to know what happened, even if it was just a scan. This scan was her friend.</p>
<p>"I found someone there, guarding the ARK." She spoke carefully. She was super nervous about how he would react.</p>
<p>"Who was it?"</p>
<p>"A man by the name of Sean McLoughlin. It was you." Silence filled the lab while Sean tried to make sense of what she had said.</p>
<p>"Wait, you mean the real me?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"How did, why didn't I. Why did he just?"</p>
<p>"Wait, just let me finish alright?" Sean stayed silent.</p>
<p>"He said that Catherine ran into his room and was holding the ARK. She told him to hide away somewhere and lock the door. So he ran to the Infirmary and locked himself inside. He couldn't tell me what had happened to the team, but he was the only person I found there." Sean was still silent. His picture on the screen was a battle between being a grim reminder and a comfort. </p>
<p>"He guarded the ARK for years from that room. Unsure of what happened to the others, he stayed locked up until someone trustworthy came back."</p>
<p>Sean was still silent, which was making Reily very nervous. "Look, I understand that you are disappointed in yourself but something bad could have happened and he saved the ARK. I'm sure your team did everything they could to try and finish the project."</p>
<p>"I'm not worried about that, I know I would do anything Catherine told me. So I'm not surprised that I followed what she said. It's just weird knowing that you got to meet present me. Where is he now?"</p>
<p>"He passed away. I sat beside him to keep him company."</p>
<p>"That's probably for the best. If he was in there since they planned to send the ARK off, it's been a long time." Sean seemed off. Reily could understand, she wouldn't be super excited to learn that a version of yourself died. "Well, we are fulfilling his wish by sending the ARK into space. Let's head to the pilot seat outside to shoot this off." Sean's normal tone was creeping back slowly. Reily nodded and grabbed her Omnitool and headed down the hallway that was labeled OMEGA SPACE GUN.</p>
<p>"Seems like the place that would have a gun big enough to launch this bullet into space." Reily joked as she walked down the hall. She finally made it to the air lock and started filling it up to match the water outside. Once it was done, she stepped out onto the steel platform. The whole room was once enclosed with a huge glass dome, but over the years the glass shattered. the gun was the biggest thing in the room, and there was a raised platform next to it that had the pilot seat facing the gun. Reily carefully made her way to the seat and set the Omnitool into the control panel. She sat down in the chair and the chair and control panel spun around so she was facing directly at the gun.</p>
<p>"You ready?" Sean spoke up next to her.</p>
<p>"How will we get on the ARK?"</p>
<p>"Don't worry, I have it linked up with the switch. So, when you hit the all mighty button it'll scan both of us and download us to the ARK. We do have to make sure it takes off."</p>
<p>"Alright, as long as it works." Reily felt nervous, more nervous now than anytime before. Even more nervous than that dumb exam.</p>
<p>"You going to hit the button?"</p>
<p>"Yeah, just basking in what all we accomplished today."</p>
<p>"Alright, well we can celebrate later on the ARK when we are floating around in space."</p>
<p>Reily chuckled then started her count down.</p>
<p>"Five, four, three, two, and." She held her fingers right over the button.</p>
<p>"One!" She pressed down and the screen next to her had two pop ups. One side said Sean with a bar that was slowly filling up. The other side said Reily with the same looking bar. A voice over the speakers started a countdown for launching.</p>
<p>"Thirty. twenty nine, twenty eight, twenty seven." Sean's scan was almost done. Hopefully we wouldn't be cutting it close.</p>
<p>"Are you ready! This is finally happening!" Sean was practically screaming in excitement over the loud noises of the gun.  </p>
<p>"I just hope we get on the ARK in time!"</p>
<p>"Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen."</p>
<p>The bar had finished on Sean and moved to me. </p>
<p>"There isn't enough time! Sean!" She was starting to panic. The thought of being alone down here was too much to handle.</p>
<p>"Ten. nine. eight. seven." The bar was halfway done.</p>
<p>"Come on!"</p>
<p>"Five. Four. Three. Two."</p>
<p>The bar suddenly shot forward and completed the download. She had just enough time to punch the air and exclaim her excitement. The gun shook before a loud blast sounded off while an eruption of bubbles exploded out of the sides of the gun and more so outside of the barrel. She could see the ARK on a tiny screen and watched it break through the ocean, soaring through the sky, then finally entering space.</p>
<p>"Sean! We did it!" She yelled out. </p>
<p>"Sean?" She tapped the screen, but it just showed where the ARK was in space.</p>
<p>"Sean!" Did something go wrong? Was he on the ARK and she just didn't make it? </p>
<p>"Don't panic yet. Remember what he said, the scan is almost like a clone. So it probably did work but also like he said, it's like a coin toss. I just got the worst outcome, but there has to be a version of me in the ARK. With Sean." She could feel the panic turning into a confused feeling.</p>
<p>She was happy that a part of her made it to the ARK, but she was alone now. She looked around and could see in the distant faint blue lights lumbering towards the building. The WAU must have heard the gun going off and are investigating. </p>
<p>"Sean, if this is just some prank please stop. I seriously need to know if you are there?" Nothing answered her. It was deathly quiet. </p>
<p>"I can't survive this place. The climber is broken if I could even make it back to there. I can't survive alone inside of PHI, not with this many creatures coming towards me." She slumped lower in her seat contemplating what to do. </p>
<p>She came up with a solution that was terrifying, but also calming. She stood up and looked over the landscape outside of the dome. She could see the large fish that was attack her back when she first got here, she could see the other WAU creatures walking towards the building. She took a deep breath and slowly lifted her hands to take hold of ether side of her head.</p>
<p>"I'm sorry Sean. I'm sorry world. "I'm sorry Sam."</p>
<p>She started to pull up on her helmet.</p>
<p>"But You're fucking welcome for saving this project."</p>
<p>She pulled up and watched the water rush into her suit. Her right eye cracked and the pressure was closing around her. She looked up with her one eye and looked at the gun before darkness consumed her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. ARK</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I slowly opened my eyes and tried to focus on my surroundings. I could hear birds chirping and a river splashing in the distant. I moved my head slowly and could start to see small pools of sunlight dotting the ground. After a few moments my eyes fully adjusted to the new area and I could fully see around me. I was in a cave of some kind, holes in the ceiling allowing the light to seep in. I stood up and looked at my body. </p>
<p>It was my human body, I had skin and hair again. I turned around and looked at the pilot seat that I woke up in.</p>
<p>"So it worked! It really worked!" I jumped up and down for a few minutes. Then I placed my hand over my heart and relished in the feeling of my heart beat. After my heart rate slowed down, I started hurrying down the cave and finally could see an opening. I stopped when I got out of the cave and stared at the world around me. It was beyond words in beauty, there was a river flowing by next to a gravel path. I was surrounded in trees and small patches of meadows with wildflowers growing all around. </p>
<p>"Wow, this is amazing." I could not believe that this was in the ARK. I slowed down my run and took my time to look around at the pure bliss of this world. </p>
<p>I kept walking until I could see the top of a city with tall buildings looming over in the distant.</p>
<p>"Oh my god, other people!" I was full of excitement and took off in another run. I darted around corners until the area opened up to a small dock on the side of a lake surrounding the city. I stopped when I saw a man admiring the city on the dock. </p>
<p>"Sean?" He turned and immediately ran over to me.</p>
<p>"Reily!" We both ran into our first hug. He was taller than I expected, but then again I only know him to be sitting in a chair or on a screen.</p>
<p>"You did it Reily." His voice was muffled in my hair and neck.</p>
<p>"No, we did it Sean."</p>
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